[Neocp_artsats] Artsat tracklets currently on NEOCP

Bill Gray pluto at projectpluto.com
Tue Feb 13 12:12:52 EST 2024


Hello all,

    NEOCP is currently a busy place for artsats,  with six artsat 
tracklets of five objects :

    A113PTq = ZTs0201 is a reappearance of an artsat last seen in 
December,  A10ZsPt = A10Zv6L.

    A113PuI is also a reappearance of an artsat,  A10Zuus = A10Zol2. 
Both are ETBOs that had gone unobserved long enough for their 
ephemerides to become somewhat unreliable,  which is how they sneaked 
back on to NEOCP.

    ZTs0200 is a reappearance of A1123SR,  which was put on NEOCP on 
January 6.  We had nowhere near enough data for an orbit then.

    A113Vwd has been followed up by Sam Deen from (X09),  giving us a 
pretty good orbit.  It has H=27.2,  which by itself would suggest it's 
not an ETBO (they tend to be around H=30 or smaller),  and Sam's data 
confirms that it doesn't have a high area/mass ratio.  It's probably a 
recently launched,  not yet catalogued booster.  It has a perigee of 
about 140 km,  so it may not last all that long.

    The various lists of recent launches,  however,  don't show anything 
having gone beyond LEO (except Peregrine,  in a very different orbit, 
and all its bits and pieces are accounted for).

    I've posted/updated TLEs for the above four objects.  The TLEs will 
suffer from the usual problem for the ETBOs (objects get blown off 
prediction) and drag will probably cause trouble for A113Vwd.

    ZTs0199 is a definite artsat.  I can't identify it.  It's almost 
certainly ETBOs,  but we don't have a heck of a lot of data.

    In addition to the six tracklets mentioned above,  ZTs0196 is 
probably junk.  The heliocentric solutions are believable,  though.

-- Bill



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