[ExI] Name the Rogue Satellite Operation

[The Avantguardian]

--- hkhenson <hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
> My orbital mechanics is 40 years in the past so correct me if I get
> this wrong.
> 
> A single impulse applied in a low orbit can raise the apogee (i.e., 
> make the orbit more egg shaped) but it cannot raise the 
> perigee.  That takes a second impulse as in a Hohmann transfer 
> orbit.  Now I am assuming that a satellite scraping the atmosphere is
> 
> in a nearly circular low orbit.  So any way you bang it with an 
> interceptor, the cloud of junk is going to be in orbits where the low
> 
> point is getting serious drag.  That should keep the decay time
> short.

I guess you have a point but it's moot any way, they have already
struck it down. I still don't think it's a great idea to expend tens of
millions of dollars to destroy a piece of hardware that cost us
hundreds of millions of dollars to build. It was launched in 2006, so
it's only a couple of years old. Hardly obsolete at least in my
opinion. Why couldn't they have sent up a shuttle mission to repair it?
Or was the satelite obviously crap to begin with? It's a fortunate
thing we didn't implement this solution to the Hubble telescope when it
was malfunctioning.   



Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"Life is the sum of all your choices."  
Albert Camus


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