Re: satellite size
Jim Varney (sat_watcher@rocketmail.com)
Tue, 21 Oct 1997 12:07:08 -0700 (PDT)
---Darwin Teague <darwin@indy.net> wrote:
> My problem is, I have NO idea how large satellites are.
Jeff Hunt's suggestion to use the size data from the Molczan .tle's is a
good one.
Another way is to use the Radar Cross Section (RCS) data from NASA's
Satellite Situation Reports. Mike McCants maintains a handy version at
his ftp.fc.net site of the SSRs that are easy to load into a
spreadsheet. Just keep in mind that the relationship between apparent
size on radar and the actual physical dimensions may not hold very well.
Here's the Top 20 of largest RCS values of objects with apogees below
2000 km:
Cat Cospar Name RCS(sq m)
16609 86-017A MIR 785.9
17845 87-030A KVANT 1 422.5
20335 89-093A KVANT 2 200.1
20580 90-037B HST 100.7
08755 76-024B SL-3 R/B 97.8
12298 81-013B SL-8 R/B 48.8
17973 87-041A COSMOS 1844 41.9
15772 85-042D SL-12 R/B(2) 37.2
12879 81-098A COSMOS 1312 36.2
17527 87-018A MOS 1A (MOMO 1) 36.1
19573 88-093A COSMOS 1975 34.9
19649 88-102A COSMOS 1980 32.0
14551 83-122A COSMOS 1515 30.6
16613 86-019A SPOT 1 30.0
10860 78-045A COSMOS 1005 30.0
17526 87-017B SL-8 R/B 28.8
14064 83-044A COSMOS 1461 28.6
13367 82-072A LANDSAT 4 28.4
15334 84-106B SL-12 R/B(2) 27.9
The majority of the Top 20 are payloads, not boosters.
Good luck with your transits.
__________________________________________________
Jim Varney 121.398W 38.458N 8m Sacramento, CA
jamesv@softcom.net, sat_watcher@rocketmail.com
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