Re: SPAM::Apollo TLE to Keplarian elements

From: robert.fenske@swri.org
Date: Tue May 25 2004 - 13:46:14 EDT

  • Next message: Mike McCants: "Re: Apollo TLE to Keplarian elements"

    On Tue, 25 May 2004, Dale Ireland wrote:
    
    > I wanted to plot the position of the Apollo 16 Saturn IVB booster in
    > trans-lunar trajectory (on the way to the Moon) in 1972.
    > I obtained the two line elements, which I "believe" are the trans-lunar
    > elements
    >
    > 1 00601U          63174.97885867  .00885526                        27
    > 2 00601  69.8619 172.9878 0483667 138.6852 225.0868 15.21267116  1270
    
    	The above elements has the epoch (63.174...) as day 174 of 1963.  The
    Apollo 16 mission was in Apr 1972 so the epoch should be more like 721xx.
    Also the revs/day of 15.2... is way to high for an (fitted) elliptical orbit
    around the  Earth that reaches the Moon.  I would expect something around .1
    or .2 instead.
    
    
    > Nova For Windows doesn't see these as valid elements. Probably because the
    > satellite has escaped Earth orbit. How can I convert these two line elements
    > into Sun centered Keplarian elements for use in other planetarium programs.
    
    
    Robert Fenske, Jr.   rfenske@swri.edu    Sw     |The Taming the C*sm*s series:
    Southwest Research Institute            /R---\  |
    Signal Exploitation & Geolocation Div  | I    | |"The Martian canals were the
    San Antonio,Texas USA  ph:210-522-3931  \----/  | Martians' last ditch effort."
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive:  
    http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 25 2004 - 13:51:58 EDT