A Study on the Tracking and Position Predictions

Abstract

Most of all methods of determining the preliminary orbit of an artificial Earth satellite are reviewed. The preliminary orbits of the meteorological satellite NOAA-10 are determined using the studied methods and are compared with mean orbital elements determined with Gaussian type methods are more approximate to those of NASA than those calculated with Laplacian type ones. Our results indicate that Taff(1984)'s criticism on the Gauss method must be abandoned and Marsden(1985)'s analysis on the method is correct.