fellow seesaters, the low thrust nature of the orbit adjustment capabilities of the Iridium satellites would it seems to me preclude any possiblity of a controlled re-entry in the proper sense of the word, since this requires the satellite perigee to go from a "safe" height of say 150Km, to a must decay height of say 75Km in a time interval less than the orbital period ( say 90 minutes). By deliberately creating an eccentric orbit and making the perigee point over the southern apex it might be possible to insure that re-entry took place over antartica or it surrounds, but it would require some finesse. All this takes are 10 minute bursts along against the velocity vector at northern apex. This requires the satellite orientation be maintained so that flares should be predictable during such events Does anybody have numbers on the velocity change in the satellites?. This of course governs how low a perigee could be had. I suspect all that can be done is to lower perigee to 250-300Km and let the atmosphere do the rest. Tony Beresford ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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