AN ORBIT COMPUTER FOR A SATELLITE POSITION DISPLAY
Abstract
A display suitable for presenting earth satellite information on shipboard is being investigated. This study investigates the computational phase of the problem. A combination of digital and analog techniques, with servo amplifiers to position the shafts of magnetic resolvers which generate sine and cosine functions, is proposed to implement equations derived for the calculation of satellite height and of subsatellite position as latitude and longitude. Orbital elements and initial conditions are selected for up to ten satellites out of the total in a digital store, and positions are computed for each in turn at any arbitrary time. Computer output appears in digital form and, depending upon display design, may be either placed in a register or displayed directly. Essentially continuous orbits can be computed as a succession of subsatellite positions corresponding to small discrete increments in time through an anomalistic period bracketing the selected epoch. According to display design, the resulting subsatellite track will be either displayed directly or stored in a scan-converter cathode-ray tube. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 31, 1961
- Accession Number
- AD0261475
Entities
People
- H. G. Talmadge Jr.
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory