Cosmos 149 and Cosmos 320 were designed and built as high-drag objects. The standard "Cosmos" ellipsoidal body had an annular structure attached to long rods that held it some distance from the main body. The ring was mounted at right angles to the rods and provided drag. This allowed it to be used as a stabilisation device, orienting the satellite with the main body pointing forward along the orbital path. This is similar to the way feathers stabilise an arrow. The low orbit used in order for the stabilisation to work, and the relatively-large surface area of the ring, led to rapid decay of the orbit. On 4 Feb 2003 at 8:34, jcm@head-cfa.cfa.harvard.edu wrote: > > Ed, > The http://www.fai.org/astronautics/100km.asp > link is pretty much rubbish and has a number of errors in it; in particular > the reference which you mention, which as Igor points out refers to Kosmos-149 or Kosmos-320, > sounds like it is rehashing a vague memory of the author; TLEs show rapid decay within a few hours > of reaching 200 km, not 100 km.........._____________________________ Robert Christy bob@zarya.info www.zarya.info _____________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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