From: Eugene Leitl (Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Mon Jul 23 2001 - 10:30:31 MDT
On Fri, 20 Jul 2001, Trask, Robert E wrote:
> There are actually SIX things (Orbital Elements) you have know to
> predict an objects location at a given time in orbit, and we can thank
> Mr. Kepler. They are not static and have to be updated constantly
Kepler is 100% Newtonian.
> because of gravitational and high atmosphere influences.
In absence of active course corrections I can nail a sat blindly, using
ephemerides days (possibly weeks) old. And tracking data not that stale
while not being realtime will give me the position down to a cm.
This is very different from knowing a position of a missile in boost
phase, possibly doing evasion maneuvers, where I have to have very
accurate, hard realtime data.
> Do a little thinking about why something like the ISS is in the orbit
> (inclination, direction) that it is in. Ever seen ANY space mission
> orbiting east to west?
We're not talking about cheap launch costs. We're talking kinetic kill,
i.e. achieving maximum delta v to the target. As such, the optimal way to
depopulate an orbit is to launch tungsten or depleted uranium pellets
countersense. The only countermeasure is to change orbit, quick.
> Go beyond the trivial...
I think you keep underestimating John.
-- Eugen* Leitl leitl
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