I have an orbit decay question using the new atmospheric model in 2010P1.
I launched a Sputnik 1 (from Igel's First in Space add on) with the new atmospheric model turned on (in the extras tab). I let the simulation run for quite some time using 10x time compression. I am now up to 1/13/58 and neither the rocket (core A) nor the Sputnik 1 satellite are close to having their orbits decay to the point of reentry (apogee of about 900 km). For reference, the real Sputnik 1 satellite orbit decay date was 1/4/58 while the Core A stage orbit decay date was 12/2/57.
I did not record the initial orbital parameters when I 1st launched the sputnik 1, but it was on the correct date of 10/4/57 and had a apogee of about 960 km and a perigee of about 210 km which is close to the actual Sputnik 1 of (939 x 215).
The orbit decay I have been getting has been about a constant 0.6 km per day off the apogee. Oddly the Core A stage initially was decaying at a slightly faster rate than Sputnik 1 (which seems logical) up until around the last week or so (simulated time) in which the Sputnik 1 is now "catching up" (decaying slightly faster, which does not seem logical) to the core stage. The difference (on a given orbit in time) between the apogee of Core A vs Sputnik grew from zero at the point of satellite separation form the core to about 10 km but now is getting smaller.
A few questions I can think of. Do I have everything setup correctly in orbiter to get an accurate atmospheric drag occurring? Is the atmospheric model not accurate enough to get the Sputnik 1 to orbit decay in roughly the correct time frame? Is the 10x time compression affecting the accuracy? Is the Sputnik1 and Core A stage I am using modeled accurately enough to get them to decay in the correct time frame? Is there something else that I'm not thinking about?
I launched a Sputnik 1 (from Igel's First in Space add on) with the new atmospheric model turned on (in the extras tab). I let the simulation run for quite some time using 10x time compression. I am now up to 1/13/58 and neither the rocket (core A) nor the Sputnik 1 satellite are close to having their orbits decay to the point of reentry (apogee of about 900 km). For reference, the real Sputnik 1 satellite orbit decay date was 1/4/58 while the Core A stage orbit decay date was 12/2/57.
I did not record the initial orbital parameters when I 1st launched the sputnik 1, but it was on the correct date of 10/4/57 and had a apogee of about 960 km and a perigee of about 210 km which is close to the actual Sputnik 1 of (939 x 215).
The orbit decay I have been getting has been about a constant 0.6 km per day off the apogee. Oddly the Core A stage initially was decaying at a slightly faster rate than Sputnik 1 (which seems logical) up until around the last week or so (simulated time) in which the Sputnik 1 is now "catching up" (decaying slightly faster, which does not seem logical) to the core stage. The difference (on a given orbit in time) between the apogee of Core A vs Sputnik grew from zero at the point of satellite separation form the core to about 10 km but now is getting smaller.
A few questions I can think of. Do I have everything setup correctly in orbiter to get an accurate atmospheric drag occurring? Is the atmospheric model not accurate enough to get the Sputnik 1 to orbit decay in roughly the correct time frame? Is the 10x time compression affecting the accuracy? Is the Sputnik1 and Core A stage I am using modeled accurately enough to get them to decay in the correct time frame? Is there something else that I'm not thinking about?
