Scott Tilley spotted an UNID, for which he reported several observations spanning nearly one minute of time, and a circular orbit approximation: http://satobs.org/seesat/Oct-2011/0127.html Independent analyses by my myself and Mike McCants indicate that this object may be debris from one of the NOSS launches. Mike obtained the following result by imposing "NOSS 3 values for mean motion and inclination and eccentricity and adjust the argument of perigee to fit": 1 99991U 11289.12322219 0.00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 03 2 99991 63.4400 167.9500 0900000 59.4717 300.5282 13.43000000 07 I obtained the following result by allowing all elements to vary except rate of decay: 531 X 1489 km 1 70000U 11289.12442189 .00000188 00000-0 50000-4 0 08 2 70000 63.3127 168.1162 0648952 59.1087 307.2119 13.66764325 06 Of course, a short arc is unlikely to yield an accurate mean motion, so I offer a set of search elements based on different values of mean motion, as appended. Based on the perigee height and inclination, the object belongs to one the final three first generation NOSS launched, most likely that of NOSS 1-8 (87034A-H). If it is the Living Plume Shield (87043B / 17998), then its mean motion is likely to be closer to 13.4 rev/d; if it is other debris, or a regular plume shield (i.e. non-living) from a different launch, then its mean motion is more likely to be greater than 13.5 rev/d. Ted Molczan Search elements 578 X 1638 km 1 70001U 11289.12419365 .00000248 00000-0 10000-3 0 01 2 70001 63.3147 168.1038 0708287 68.0045 299.4668 13.40000000 08 570 X 1609 km 1 70002U 11289.12423661 .00000266 00000-0 10000-3 0 06 2 70002 63.3144 168.1061 0695950 66.4560 300.7988 13.45000000 04 561 X 1581 km 1 70003U 11289.12427941 .00000286 00000-0 10000-3 0 04 2 70003 63.3140 168.1085 0684155 64.8554 302.1835 13.50000000 00 553 X 1553 km 1 70004U 11289.12432203 .00000309 00000-0 10000-3 0 08 2 70004 63.3136 168.1108 0672928 63.2027 303.6210 13.55000000 03 544 X 1525 km 1 70005U 11289.12436449 .00000334 00000-0 10000-3 0 03 2 70005 63.3132 168.1131 0662292 61.4981 305.1111 13.60000000 01 534 X 1499 km 1 70006U 11289.12440677 .00000364 00000-0 10000-3 0 05 2 70006 63.3128 168.1154 0652273 59.7425 306.6530 13.65000000 09 524 X 1473 km 1 70007U 11289.12444888 .00000397 00000-0 10000-3 0 00 2 70007 63.3124 168.1178 0642897 57.9367 308.2456 13.70000000 09 514 X 1447 km 1 70008U 11289.12449083 .00000436 00000-0 10000-3 0 07 2 70008 63.3120 168.1201 0634189 56.0823 309.8876 13.75000000 03 _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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