Re: Decay of Mars Pathfinder rocket

Craig Cholar (3432P@VM1.CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL)
Wed, 26 Nov 97 23:52:54 PST

Thanks Alan, for posting the elements for the Mars Pathfinder rocket.

As Don Gardner pointed out, there are some morning passes for it
that will be visible from the U.S..  Here in central California, I
have a near-zenith pass coming up at around 06:33 PST (14:33 UT)
Thursday morning in strong twilight, a low unlit pass in the south
Friday morning close to 4:30 PST, and a pass only 2 degrees from
the zenith at about 6:02 PST on the next orbit, if it survives that
long.

Some of the places where there are dusk/dawn viewing opportunities
before re-entry are, in order of occurence:
New Zealand, Australia, US east coast, south-central US, US west
coast, S. Africa, Japan, eastern China, central China, northern
Argentina, the Himalayan region, Chile, Iran, Turkey, southern Europe,
parts of N. Africa, Portugal, and Australia.

What might be the final orbit will have nighttime passes over
Australia, Hawaii, the US southwest, and midwest.

I noticed that the U.S. passes occur at or near apogee.  The
perigee passes are occuring in the s. hemisphere, near lat -23S.
The difference between apogee and perigee using Alan's final elset
is 31km (19 statue miles).  I don't know if that's enough difference
to make it more likely that re-entry will occur in the s. hemisphere.

An aside:  I included some of the more 'exotic' locations above just
in case there's a lurker out there we don't know about.  Sometimes I
wonder if we have any Seesat subscribers in locations other than
N. America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, S. Africa, and Japan.
Are there subscribers in South or Central America, Africa (outside of
S. Africa), mainland Asia, or across the seas on some far-flung
island like Diego Garcia?  Maybe not, but if so, don't be shy!

 Craig Cholar    3432P@VM1.CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL
 Marina, California
 36 41 10.3N,  121 48 17.9W    (36.6862, -121.8050)      UTC -8