Empirical Parameters Determining the Lifetime of Artificial Earth Satellites

摘要

The decay of the orbit of most artificial earth satellites can be described by the simple formula log N = R (log delta P sub N + Q) N is the revolution number reckoned backwards from the revolution of decay and delta P sub N a quantity defined in the text. The parameters R and Q are correlated to the ratio m/F of mass and effective cross section and to the height of the perigee q, respectively. (Author)