Monday, August 9, 2010

TLE to something useful?

Hello bloggers! How are you all doing today? I’m a little bit frustrated. Right now I’m trying to experiment with what I’ve been learning in diff geo. What I want to do is take statelier reentry data and make it into a curve of its position and platitude with respect to time. That way I can get its equation. You see, when a satellite or comet falls towards Earth it’s free falling and the only force excreted on it is gravity (if we ignore winds, which we can do if we go high enough in the atmosphere). And according to general relativity gravity isn’t a force at all but a shape. The gravity around earth is shaped a certain way and that makes things like balls and satellites travel towards the earth. I’ve included a picture of what I think the gravity around Earth looks like (this is only a slice). I’m managed to secure some satellite reentry data but it’s come in the form of a two line element (TLE) which I guess is standard for NASA. But I want longitude, latitude and altitude from this data. I’m having an impossibly hard time making the jump from Right Ascension to a longitude and altitude or whatever it supposed to be. Does anyone know how to do that? Or know anyone who would know?

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