Re: Compilation of Phobos-Grunt Decay Estimates v3

From: Rainer Kresken (rkresken@t-online.de)
Date: Sat Jan 14 2012 - 13:00:31 UTC

  • Next message: Ted Molczan: "Compilation of Phobos-Grunt Decay Estimates v5"

    On 1/14/2012 1:26 PM, Thierry Legault wrote:
     > hello, this is very interesting and I have a question: is the decay
     > more likely in the part of the orbit close to the perigee?
    
    In the case of controlled reentry from an eccentric orbit, the decay is not only 
    more likely but certainly close to perigee.
    
    In the case of a slowly decaying orbit like in the case of Phobos-Grunt, the 
    eccentricity decreases to zero before the reentry and the perigee gets therefore 
    poorly defined . In the last moments of the reentry, the satellites gets closer 
    to earth but I wouldnt call that "perigee" any more.
    
    Rainer
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