Re: Elements supply situation. Now we finally know (?) whats going to happen after 31 March 2005 but confusion still reigns in my mind. As I understand it one may register and obtain elements subject to the proviso that one does not distribute the elements obtained or place them on websites etc. However there does not appear to be a restriction on observing the satellites, getting positions and generating our own elements which we may then distribute and this is something that cannot be prevented as there is a world outside the United States that is not answerable to the United States. Suppose a satellite becomes "lost" to the general community who rely on the elements generated by amateurs - there is no restriction for registered users to use official elements and obtain new positions and distribute such so the amateur derived orbit may then be updated. Similarly, if Chris (or any other source ) gets permission to use elements to generate predictions for Heavens-Above, these predictions /observations can be used to correct the amateur derived orbit. Im afraid that the "logic" re the restrictions escapes me. It means extra work for the amateur community but is not insurmountable. If Chris is unable to get permission for Heavens-Above I suggest that the amateur community maintain our own elements for satellites that appear in VISUAL.TLE and MCCANTS.TLE ( there is quite a lot of overlap but its less than about 1700 satellites) and that Chris be "allowed" to use them. I feel that it is important that elements are freely available otherwise we will have no new observers and we will all eventually die out and the hobby disappear. Just my 1 cents worth - ( in South Africa thats not worth much!) Cheers Greg ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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