Project Vanguard Report No. 32, Minitrack Report No. 5

Download or read book Project Vanguard Report No. 32, Minitrack Report No. 5 written by and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The information necessary to permit satellite orbit computations from raw Minitrack data is given, the Minitrack data on the satellites 1958 Alpha and 1958 Beta for the period 7 through 20 May 1958 are presented in appendixes. It is intended that the use of these data will encourage and facilitate the development of new computation techniques. The basic Minitrack measurement and the data message itself are described, and a discussion is made of the handling and preparation of the data message for the Vanguard IBM 704 computer. The outputs of the computer are also discussed. Residual data from the 704 computer's differential correction program, and meridian crossing times and elevation angles from the Burroughs E101 computer are given for each data message. Two correction formulas are given for adjusting the raw data. One of these corrects for overall station factors only and may be used alone if an error of about 1 percent is tolerable; the other corrects for the 1 percent error introduced by antenna pattern distortion and system cross-talk. (Author).