Daniel Crawford asked: > If I wanted to know the size of a satellite, rocket or piece > of debris, how would I find out? Mike McCants provides excellent information on his web site. Go to his programs page: http://users2.ev1.net/~mmccants/programs/index.html File Quicksat, found in Qsmag.zip, contains size and brightness data for over 3000 objects. Up to 3 dimensions are provided for many of the objects. RCS (radar cross-section) values are provided for nearly all of the objects. Brightness data is in the Form of intrinsic magnitude (1000 km, zero deg phase). The file is included with Mike's Quicksat ephemeris generator, which is in file quicksat.zip. The doc file includes a detailed description of the Quicksat data file. Go to Mike's main page: http://users2.ev1.net/~mmccants/ Near the bottom you will find RCS.zip, which provides RCS values For over 8100 objects. These are median values compiled by Mike over more than five years. The median values are more reliable than the random single values provided by NASA/OIG. Go to Mike's elements page: http://users2.ev1.net/~mmccants/tles/index.html The mccants file contains recent orbital elements for the more than 1600 objects are most likely to be of interest to visual observers. Each 2-line elset is preceded by a name line, for example: Vanguard 2 r 1.2 0.5 0.0 9.1 d 0.69 This means that Vanguard 2's rocket body is a 1.2 m long, 0.5 m diameter cylinder, with an intrinsic visual magnitude of 9.1 (1000 km, 90 deg phase) with a an RCS value of 0.69 m^2. The "d" means the intrinsic visual magnitude was estimated from the object's dimensions. A "v" denotes magnitude derived from visual observations. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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