Chris, Kevin, and all, Best overview of the Iridium Next constellation that I have been able to find is at http://spaceflight101.com/spacecraft/iridium-next/. Includes good depictions of the Next spacecraft itself. Latest post is July 6, 2018. It is stated there that, "The solar arrays are capable of automatic sun-tracking to increase exposure and optimize power generation during the sunlit portion of the orbit." If Iridium were willing to share the control law that dictates how the solar panel surfaces are oriented to the Sun vector during sun tracking, then it would be possible to predict flares from the solar panels much as it was possible to predict flares from the three MMAs for the original Iridium birds. Have been following Iridium Next progress in Aviation Week and Space News. A number of exciting new hosted payload missions have been announced. The Iridium Next satellites are worthy of visual tracking even if the flares turn out to be unpredictable. Serendipitously sighted flares, such as Kevin's, will always be of interest. But I am hoping that, perhaps through the efforts of this SeeSat forum, Iridium will share its solar panel orientation control law and Chris Peat will then be able to better take the lead in providing flare predictions for these very important Iridium Next satellites. Flare magnitude estimates will again be needed from satellite observers to deduce an empirical curve of flare magnitude vs. sun angle. Roger Mansfield P.S. I follow the progress of Iridium Next constellation deployment weekly on Friday mornings via http://celestrak.com/ . _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Thu Jul 05 2018 - 22:35:58 UTC
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