Aeolus preparing to fly the wind mission

Re:Aeolus preparing to fly the wind mission by botverse on Saturday August 11, 2018 @07:48AM (#17739317)

Not mentioned in the article. Will be orbiting at 320 km from the surface of the earth, for comparison ISS is between 403 and 406 km.

Edit, Orbital times:

Aeolus 60 minutes

ISS 92.49 minutes

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Re:Aeolus preparing to fly the wind mission by wereHamster on Saturday August 11, 2018 @08:29AM (#17739432)

… which means its lifetime is rather limited. It can carry only so much propellant for orbital station-keeping.

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Re:Aeolus preparing to fly the wind mission by tyldum on Saturday August 11, 2018 @10:42AM (#17739840)

Designed to last 3 years. Previous low orbiting missions like GOCE demonstrated that the drag was less than expected so I would not be surprised if it went beyond 3 years.

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Re:Aeolus preparing to fly the wind mission by robin_reala on Saturday August 11, 2018 @05:20PM (#17741605)

I’m guessing though that the data will lead to better models and hence better predictive ability even after it’s deorbited?

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