Sputnik 1: T+ 50

From: Brooke Clarke (brooke@pacific.net)
Date: Thu Oct 04 2007 - 14:11:29 EDT

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    Hi Ted:
    
    Tom Van Baak has an HP Journal article on his web page:
    http://www.hparchive.com/Journals/HPJ-1957-09-Sputnik.pdf
    that shows the change doppler frequency as measured at Stanford Research 
    Institute in Menlo Park (almost a stone's throw from Stanford university and HP).
    
    Some cleaver thinking then leads to the idea that you can determine were you 
    are if you know the satellite orbital parameters.  That's what they did at John 
    Hopkins University thus starting the Transit sat nav program for Polaris subs. 
      http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/Transit/index.html
    
    But Transit required atomic clocks so in the next generation satellite nav 
    system the atomic clocks were designed out and we ended up with GPS.  I think 
    it's more than fair to say sputnik is the grandfather of GPS.
    
    If the orbital elements were known for Sputnik for the first few weeks of 
    operation (while the beacon was transmitting) the doppler shift as seen at 
    Menlo Park (and/or John Hopkins) could be calculated for a 40.0 Mc signal.
    
    more at:  http://www.prc68.com/I/electron.shtml#Sputnik
    -- 
    Have Fun,
    
    Brooke Clarke
    http://www.PRC68.com
    http://www.precisionclock.com
    http://www.prc68.com/I/WebCam2.shtml 24/7 Sky-Weather-Astronomy Cam
    
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