>Alphonse asked... >>Who knows why http://hyperspace.nrl.navy.mil/TiPS/latest_tips.els gives >>00006 instead of 23937 as NORAD# ? >>My pleasure, avec plaisir, Alphonse >>alphonse.pouplier@skynet.be > >The TiPS website has a link to their e-mail address at >tipsinfo@tips.nrl.navy.mil, so I asked this same question a few >weeks ago and got back this reply... > >> On the NORAD number being 00006, that is an artifact of the >>procedure we use to get the elements onto the web page. We get the >>elements from Naval Space Command in a 1-line element set then run a >>conversion program to generate the 2-line sets. The 1-line format only >>has 2 digits available to Satellite ID's, and for reasons unknown, TiPS >>shows up as 06. There also is (or was, I've lost track) a security issue >>concerning the official ID and how that relates back to the host vehicle. >>By leaving the 06, we've not had to worry about that. I've not heard >>anything of the number being 23937, the only other two ID number's I've >>heard of are in the US Space Command analyst set, and they are 86399 for >>Norton and 86398 for Ralph. I'm not sure exactly why US Space Command >>chose to implement two ID numbers, though might speculate that they were >>planning on the tether breaking. > > >The TiPS personnel at the Navy Research Lab are eager to hear from >TiPS observers. Here's another snippet of e-mail I received from >them regarding the differences between the elements published at >thier website vs. the elements available elsewhere... > >>...I'm not surprised that there's a difference between ours >>and theirs, a large area of our research on this project involves >>improving the operational tracking techniques of tethered satellites. >>The elements we use are created from observations of one mass or the >>other, neither of which are technically in an orbit. Is easy to >>see how this creates noisy elements with plenty of room for improvement. >> >> Also wanted to ask you to please let us know if you notice anything >>unusual with TiPS, including not being able to find it when you think >>you should. We've been thinking about how we'd know when the tether is >>finally cut, and may very well first hear about it from observers such >>as yourself. Also, if you're in touch with others that regularly >>observe TiPS, we'd appreciate hearing from them also if they notice >>anything unusual going on with the tether. > > Craig Cholar 3432P@VM1.CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL > Marina, California > 36 41' 10.3" N, 121 48' 17.9" W (+36.6862, -121.8050) UTC -7 All that is very interesting. I use a little program I made which converts automaticaly 1 00006U 00000 A 97139.67361111 -.00000509 00000 0 -6360-2 0 0000 2 00006 63.4281 8.6571 0032816 359.8963 32.2451 13.63961421 4397 (given by http://hyperspace.nrl.navy.mil/TiPS/latest_tips.els) to TiPS 3.5 0.0 0.0 5.6 d 1 23937U 00000 A 97139.67361111 -.00000509 00000 0 -6360-2 0 0000 2 23937 63.4281 8.6571 0032816 359.8963 32.2451 13.63961421 4397 My pleasure, avec plaisir, Alphonse alphonse.pouplier@skynet.be URL:http://users.skynet.be/alphonse/ To be on my list: Send "subscribe alphonse" to listbot@interlink-bbs.com Main coord.: Wepion (Belgium) +50d25m27s 4d51m42s East Aux. coord.: Esparron de Verdon (France) +43d44m19s 5d58m12s East