----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul J Henney" <ph014a5309@blueyonder.co.uk> To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 6:19 AM Subject: ISS blanket *snip*** It was a docking hatch cover on Piers so you could get some idea of size from the spec. of the docking ports. BTW how quickly would something like that decay?? pj Sheffield UK Orbit life is a factor of mass, inital orbit, and the coefficient of drag. As one involved in the JAWSAT mission in January 2000, There are some really good examples of this from that mission. All the satellites for this mission were released at an orbit height between 750 and 800 Km. Most of these satellites are still up near that height, but OCS has already re-entered. If you want to see all the Keps for different satellites on this mission, plus a pretty good description of the kep elements, check out www.xmission.com/~kohlwey/keps.txt Plugging them into your usual tracking program, such as that from www.satspy.com, and displaying a ground track of them all, will show both the current information, as well as how a single launch can spread out in orbit over the course of time. All these satellites have spread out so that they fill an entire orbit. After a satellite has been released, plain ol' physics takes over. Most of these satellites were the usual type - a mass of metal and electronics of varying size and mass. The Optical Calibration Sphere (OCS) was different. It was basically a metal balloon that inflated, and then rigidized to hold its shape. They actually added dead weight to it, and kept the shell attached to it so that its mission life could be extended from several months. I believe that it was up for about 15 months. The rest of the satellites that went up on the first Minataur launch will be up there for decades. Big difference on the satellite orbit life. BTW OCS was intended to be a calibration tool for some equipment in New Mexico. It was a great object to track visually, and at times was the brightest object in the sky as it made its way through the heavens. Sorry if this is too long. I tend to get lecture-ish at times. Lloyd Thomson 41.100 N 112.000 West (north of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA) work web site for those interested - www.osss.com - shows information for the JAWSAT mission, as well as other past and future projects. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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