Re: Decay watch: Molniya 3-16
Antonin Vitek (avitek@lib.cas.cz)
Wed, 11 Feb 1998 12:58:25 +0100
Alan Pickup wrote:
> However, I wonder if the anomaly around February 5.7 was due to the loss
> of one or both (are there two?) of the Molniya's solar panels which must
> be under considerable heating and dynamic strain at such a low perigee.
> With its large area to mass ratio, a detached panel would re-enter
> almost immediately, while its absence would decrease the effective area
> to mass ratio of the remaining satellite.
According to the picture in "Kosmonavtika - Enciklopediya", published in
1985 in Moscow, the Molniya-1 series of S/C have 6 wings of solar panels
arranged in daisy-like form with 60 degrees between panels. Highly
probably the arrangement is the same for Molnija-3 S/C.
--
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Antonin Vitek
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