| Date: | 2004-01-07 22:38:00 | |
| Sender: | Frank Lemoine, David Rowlands <flemoine@santafe.gsfc.nasa.gov> | |
| Subject: | [SLR-Mail] No. 1169: Meteor3M tracking | |
| Author: | Frank Lemoine, David Rowlands | |
| Content: | ******************************************************************************** SLR Electronic Mail 2004-01-07 22:38:00 UTC Message No. 1169 ******************************************************************************** Author: Frank Lemoine, David Rowlands Subject: Meteor3M tracking Dear colleagues, We would like to encourage the SLR community to continue doing its best to track the Meteor 3M spacecraft. Until November 2003, we averaged on the order of 60 passes per month, however since that time the tracking has dropped off. The Meteor3M specialists in Russia have confirmed to us that there have been no failures of the METEOR3-M attitude control system and that the ”normal orientations of the satellite should not inhibit the SLR at elevations more than [above] 30 degrees. The only reason for degradation is radiation-induced decrease of glass transparency, but the process should be relatively slow ...” The Meteor3M spacecraft carries the SAGE instrument (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment), an experiment developed and managed by the NASA Langley Research Center. (see http://www-sage3.larc.nasa.gov/science/ for an experiment description). The processing of the science data requires the computation of accurate orbits and at present the only method by which this can be accomplished is through use of SLR. We in the Space Geodesy Branch at NASA GSFC will provide predictions for Meteor3M twice weekly, generally on Tuesdays and Fridays. We are anxious to hear any feedback you might have on the quality of the predictions. Thank you for your continued support of this mission. Regards, Frank Lemoine Frank.G.Lemoine@nasa.gov David Rowlands David.D.Rowlands@nasa.gov Space Geodesy Branch, Code 926 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 U.S.A. From: flemoine@santafe.gsfc.nasa.gov ******************************************************************************** |