Minitrack

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Minitrack was a radio system developed in the USA around 1955 to monitor ballistic missile launches and later also for approximate orbit determinations after satellite launches .

It worked according to the interference principle and used the 108 MHz frequency of the US satellites for ongoing direction measurements to the missiles. Eight antennas were arranged in pairs at different distances in the four cardinal directions: 2 antenna pairs each  in 7 and 55 wavelengths (almost 20 and 152 meters), in north-south direction an additional 3.7 m (1.318 λ). As a result, elevation angles and meridian passages were better than ± 0.05 degrees measurable.

The first minitrack system was set up at Blossom Point , Maryland and went into operation in July 1956. However, measurements from several receivers were necessary to determine the orbit of satellites. In November 1957, the Minitrack system comprised ten stations. Further stations were added later, others were dropped again. At the end of the 1960s, the system was replaced by more precise radio measurement systems and partially expanded to special satellite stations.

literature

  • Alfred Bohrmann: Orbits of artificial satellites . BI university paperback 40, Mannheim 1963
  • Günter Seeber: Satellite Geodesy . Verlag de Gruyter, Berlin 1989
  • Nelson Hayes, Trackers of the Skies . SAO Moonwatch, Cambridge (USA) 1968.
  • William R. Corliss: NASA Technical report CR 140390, Histories of the Space Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN), the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN), and the NASA Communications Network (NASCOM) . NASA, 1974. ( 102 MB PDF file )