SMAP (Soil Mosture Active Passive) is scheduled to launch the 29 of january of 2015 at 14:20:42 UTC atop maybe the final Delta II rocket (pending to maybe 2 more missions more, still awaiting confirmation) from SLC-2W pad on Vandenberg AFB (34.7545, -120.62 WGS84). It will measure the soil mosture on a two or three year mission. The following rough elset is void till T+56 min. 50.5 seconds, when satellite deploy is expected and only if launch occurs at the start of launch window (see the above time): SMAP estimation 669 X 684 km 1 70000U 15500A 15029.65107060 0.00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 02 2 70000 98.1160 38.3714 0011000 159.0288 245.3072 14.64153000 02 It should be enough accurate to be able to track it till the first elset from JSpOC is published. I would allow it about 4 minutes in time and 5 degrees in high elevation sky error per day after epoch. As you can see the elset is sun syncronous, with a node precession of about 0.9863ยบ/day. The eccentricy and mean motion has been derived from the apogee/perigee data available at the press kit. Also, the target RAAN is near the terminator (6 am. descending node), so if launch occurs at expected time the spacecraft should not suffer Earth's eclipse meanwhile is operative. In case of a launch at other time, I suspect that the spacecraft could wait in a lower orbit till reach the correct RAAN some weeks after. This conbination will allow good visibility patterns during all the year in all places on the word at sunset on low elevation skyes on the west. The satellite is expected to be rotating itself, so it maybe can make some nice flashes too but maybe only when it becomes operational, about 90 days after launch. For radio amateurs, SMAP plans to send the data via the TDRSS Geo-satellites, but also it will transmit in X-band and S-band directly to ground stations. The press kit can be found here: http://www.ulalaunch.com/uploads/docs/Mission_Booklets/DII/dii_smap_mob.pdf More info about SMAP can be found here: smap.jpl.nasa.gov/system/internal_resources/details/original/178_SMAP_Handbook_FINAL_1_JULY_2014_Web.pdf For people who is not familiar with TLEs, I will ask Simone Corbellini if he could upload the elset to his online tracker. In this case, I will publish the link in another message to the mailist. Also, in case of delay I will publish updated orbits. Please let me know any questions/corrections/suggestions. Be good & good hunting! Jon. -- Jon Mikel, COSPAR 6242, 42.9453, -2.82839, 623m, Bitoriano, Basque Country. _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Tue Jan 27 2015 - 16:11:33 UTC
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