[amsat-bb] Re: [sarex] Re: ISS to be reboosted June 3rd

[Alan P. Biddle]

Justin,

Actually, the orbit is holding up pretty well for AO-51.  The ISS is big
enough, and low enough, that drag is a significant factor.  Drag is
_roughly_ 200 times higher for the ISS than AO-51.  Even ARISSat-1, which
will start at the ISS orbit, will have a lifetime of much less than a year.
There is a good article on this in the latest AMSAT Journal.

What we really need is for the Energizer Bunny to stop by and swap out the
batteries.  And while he is at it, he can stop by a couple of other
satellites and tap on them with a hammer to free up some stuck relays.

73s,

Alan
WA4SCA


-----Original Message-----
From: sarex-bounces at AMSAT.Org [mailto:sarex-bounces at AMSAT.Org] On Behalf Of
Justin Pinnix
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 8:41 AM
To: APBIDDLE at mailaps.org
Cc: AMSAT-BB; SAREX-BB
Subject: [sarex] Re: [amsat-bb] ISS to be reboosted June 3rd

Do you think that if we asked real, real, nicely they'd go boost AO-51 for
us while they're up there?  :-)

Just kidding - I know the reasons why this could never realistically be
done.  But it does give me a great deal of appreciation for how reliable a
satellite can be when someone else is doing the stationkeeping work for us
who has resources beyond what we could ever imagine.

73 de AJ4MJ
On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 8:28 AM, Alan P. Biddle <APBIDDLE at united.net> wrote:

> According to Roscosmos, the ISS will have its orbit raised 3.74 km Friday.
> This will result in a "slippage" of predicted times of approximately 70
> seconds per day until the Keps catch up.  The AMSAT NASA.ALL Keps will
> probably not reflect this until next week, so be certain to update from
> Celstrak or Space Track.
>
> http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=11848&lang=en
>
> 73s,
>
> Alan
> WA4SCA
>
>
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