Re: Mars Polar lander
Robert Smathers (roberts@nmia.com)
Fri, 19 Mar 1999 21:02:16 -0700 (MST)
Eduardo Aldridge Vukusic wrote:
>
> I am wondering if it is possible to find elsets for interplanetary
> missions, such as Mars Polar Lander.
> I am a Starry Night (Sienna Software) for Windows user and would greatly
> like to try elsets for non earth orbiting satellites.
My experience has shown this can be a tricky thing.
the easy part - there is a web site (JPL connected?) that has
elements and a online form to number crunch some of the more
popular planetary and non-earth-orbit spacecraft. If I can find
the site in my "to add to my trackign web page" queue, I'll add it
in (or I'll wait for someone to come through with the URL and I"ll
add it right away).
the hard part - these spacecraft don't have normal TLE's since
they aren't earth orbit spacecraft (they are like sun-orbiting
spacecraft). The program I use is for calculating the path of
comets (since comets are sun orbiting, there are enough similarities
that the program gives fairly good results).
Most ordinary programs work for earth orbiting satellites, so they
won't work on sun-orbiting type spacecraft and other objects.
hopefully I can find that web page soon and add it to my tracking
page...
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de fcc sgn, Robert Smathers (roberts@nmia.com) Albuquerque, NM USA
Robert's Satellite TV/Baseball page: http://www.nmia.com/~roberts/
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