[Neocp_artsats] Recent/current junk on NEOCP
Bill Gray
pluto at projectpluto.com
Tue Nov 21 16:36:10 EST 2023
Hi folks,
It's been a busy few days in the junk business :
A10Yj4d = A10YhVb. (The latter has been removed from NEOCP; I expect the former will be.) ATLAS got it from Chile on back-to-back nights. The geocentric orbits match and link nicely with solar radiation pressure included (it's an ETBO) :
https://www.projectpluto.com/pluto/mpecs/a10yhvb.htm
and I've posted TLEs for it that should help ID it for the next few weeks.
I've long wondered just how many ETBOs are out there. It _seems_ as if there are a lot, but it could be that we're just seeing the same four or five over and over again. Lose one for a while and see it a few months later, and intervening non-gravs will destroy any hope of making the linkage.
We currently have decent ephems for two ETBOs : the one described above and A10XrSw = A10XB90 = A10Wg15, which has been spotted on six occasions since August. I've talked someone into doing some occasional follow-up of these objects; my hope is that we can maintain some knowledge of where they are and not "re-discover" them. Or we'll find out that there really are dozens of ETBOs, and that keeping track of them isn't really worthwhile.
I think TMG0088, currently on NEOCP, is an artsat (period around 1060 minutes, i=56). However, a geocentric flyby orbit is also possible.
A10YmM7 looks to be in a multi-day geocentric orbit (if I try to fit a five-day or shorter orbit, the cross-track residuals get ugly). It's not a recovery of C3X8PK1; that object had a retrograde (i=142.2) orbit, and this one has i=27. Unfortunately, it had only a 31-minute arc, and is now "awaiting survey recovery".
-- Bill
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