Re: Small RCS - was: alldat.tle w/ Skymap - FIXED!

=?iso-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn_Gimle?= (b_gimle@algonet.se)
Sat, 12 Jun 1999 11:30:32 +0200

-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph McConahy <rmcconahy@earthlink.net>
>23488 (94-85M) is a piece of debris from a Russian SL-19 rocket booster
that
>was launched 12/26/94. By the large number of debris pieces (25 in all) it
>appears that there was a problem (explosion?) with the launch vehicle once
>in orbit. On another note, the radar cross section of this object is only
>0.47 m^2 which begs the question if that is what you truly saw or was it
>something else?
>
>To answer you question about a way you can figure out what a given object
>is, go to the web page:
>ftp://tie.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/dransom/sat.sit.report/ssr99/
>and download the latest zip file.
>
There are many fragments (and even satellites) whose RCS varies considerably
from
month to month. A sheet of metal, or even non-metallic, can produce a very
small RCS
most of the time, but a better average optical CS (OCS?), and at least give
good flashes.

I believe there is a Ariane (Spot?) BJ fragment with a very good visibility
(I've seen it)

Bjoern Gimle