[amsat-bb] AO-40: Perigee now ~850 km !!!

[Peter Guelzow <peter.guelzow@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All,

The blowing of cold gas through the Arcjet is over. 

Enclosed a first set of keplerian elements generated from ranging data. 
More ranging will be done in the next few days.


  AO-40 Amsat Ranging JRM
  1 26609U 00072B   01176.01392904  .00000000  00000-0  10000-4 0  0047
  2 26609   5.3129 179.7299 8007917 290.2832   6.8841  1.25610430  3009
  
  
  Satellite:              AO-40 Amsat Ranging JRM
  Catalog number:         26609
  Epoch time:             01176.01392904
  Inclination:            5.3129  deg
  RA of node:           179.7299  deg
  Eccentricity:       0.80079177   - 
  Arg of perigee:       290.2833  deg
  Mean anomaly:           6.8842  deg
  Mean motion:        1.25610431  rev/day       
  Decay rate:                0.0  rev/day^2
  Epoch rev:                 300
  Semi major axis:    36289.817    km
  
  Apogee  height         58972.3  km
  Perigee height           851.1  km          
  
  RAAN dot               -0.1755  deg/d
  Arg Peri dot            0.3488  deg/d

 ALON = 267°
 ALAT = -2°

The perigee height raised from 280 km before the outgassing to 851 km
after, while the apogee height is unchanged. 

The good news is indeed, that AO-40 is now in a safe and stable orbit! 

The bad news is, that probably all our 53 kg of ammonia is gone. 

Since orbit #302 the ammonia stopped flowing and the pressure indicators
in the telemetry show no more pressure in the motor and in the ammonia
tanks, while the perigee is much higher than anticipated.

Stored telemetry is currently being downloaded and analyzed, which will
take some time.  More details later as they become available.

The spacecraft attitude will now be moved back to ALON/ALAT = 0/0 as
soon as possible and command stations are currently preparing for
magnetorquing. 



73s Peter, DB2OS for the AO-40 team

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