Tracking of Vanguard 3 and the Vanguard 2 rocket with Baker-Nunn cameras and the U.S. Navy's Space Surveillance (radio interferometer) system over a 14 year period revealed resonant fluctuations of up to 0.035 deg in inclination (peak to peak). Six geopotential terms (lumped coefficients) of 11th order and three of 22nd order were measured using orbit inclinations derived from this tracking record. The terms of 11th order are significantly smaller than Kaula's rule. (The lumped coefficients are sensitive to geopotential effects as high as 37th degree.) These observed terms are compatible with a recent 27-satellite geopotential solution whose formal coefficient errors are increased by a factor of 3.3.
Fourteen years of resonance of Vanguard orbits
1975-06-01
Preprint
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Vanguard : 50 years, 1964 - 2014
SLUB | 2014
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1959
Engineering Index Backfile | 1959
Online Contents | 1997
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