Mars Pathfinder rocket decay watch
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Fri, 28 Nov 1997 20:04:44 +0000
The latest elset from OIG for this object (already more than 6 hours
old) is:
Mars Pthfndr r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 242 x 130 km
1 24668U 96068B 97332.57596791 .13281748 24548-5 30830-3 0 7591
2 24668 36.3079 69.1446 0085647 240.6167 118.6063 16.32436386 48135
showing it running 20 seconds late on my previous "9753" evolution.
A straight SatEvo evolution from the above elset predicts decay at about
Novmber 28.98, but I suspect that both the drag and mean motion terms
above are too high and that a more realistic decay estimate is a couple
of orbits later at about November 29.10. The following evolution assumes
the latter:
Mars Pthfndr r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 211 x 130 km
1 24668U 96068B 97332.82025641 .16552848 14300+0 32866-3 0 97594
2 24668 36.3065 67.3641 0061479 243.0990 116.2713 16.38181839 48171
Mars Pthfndr r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 200 x 130 km
1 24668U 96068B 97332.88116710 .20152514 23839+0 35232-3 0 97596
2 24668 36.3061 66.9174 0053787 243.7219 115.7244 16.40398699 48188
Mars Pthfndr r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 187 x 128 km
1 24668U 96068B 97332.94198820 .26169388 45021+0 37806-3 0 97594
2 24668 36.3055 66.4697 0044807 244.3461 115.1904 16.43176191 48197
Mars Pthfndr r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 169 x 125 km
1 24668U 96068B 97333.00269298 .40469582 12843+1 42313-3 0 97591
2 24668 36.3048 66.0208 0033522 244.9720 114.6796 16.47063479 48202
Mars Pthfndr r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 136 x 116 km
1 24668U 96068B 97333.06321228 1.34364569 16478+2 59898-3 0 97597
2 24668 36.3035 65.5698 0015494 245.6007 114.2375 16.55170301 48211
I'll update again later this UK evening if more elsets materialise.
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
Edinburgh | Home: alan@wingar.demon.co.uk +44 (0)131 477 9144
Scotland | SatEvo satellite page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/