Space Cadre Basic Course

  1. How are satellites traveling around the earth?
    They are falling around the earth because of GRAVITY
  2. What is how long the satellite takes to orbit the earth one time?
    Orbit Period
  3. What is when the point of the orbit that's closest to the earth called?
    Perigee "traveling the fastest"
  4. What is when the point of the orbit that's furthest to the earth called?
    Apogee "traveling the slowest"
  5. What is it called when the satellite rotates with the Earth?
    Prograde
  6. What is it called when satellites rotate against the earth's naturla rotation?
    Retrograde
  7. Which of the three Kepler's law orbits of the planet are ellipses with the sun at a focus (Distance from foci to point on ellipse is constant).
    Law of Orbits
  8. Which Kepler's Law is orbits of the planets sweep out equal areas in equal time (Apogee-slow / Perigee-fast)?
    Law of Areas
  9. Which Keplar's Law is the square of the orbit period is proportional to the cube of the average distance to the Sun (Larger orbits have longer period)?
    Law of Periods
  10. What are the six Classical Orbital Elements?
    • Semi-major axis (Orbit Size)
    • Eccentricity (Shape)
    • Inclination (Tilt)
    • Right Ascension of the Ascending Node (RAAN) aka "twist"
    • Argument of Perigee (Rotation)
    • Satellites Position (true Anomaly)
  11. Which Classical Orbit Elements is "how big an orbit is?
    Semi-major Axis
  12. Which Classical Orbit Elements is how round or stretched out an orbit is?
    Eccentricity
  13. Which Classical Orbit Elements is the tilt/angle of the orbital plane with respect to the equatorial plane?
    Inclination
  14. Which Classical Orbit Elements is the orbital plane's orientation with the respect to an inertial reference point?
    Right Ascension of the Ascending Node (RAAN)
  15. Which Classical Orbit Elements is the angle measured along the orbital path between the ascending node and perigee?
    Argument of Perigee
  16. Which Classical Orbit Elements is the spacecraft's actual position within the orbit?
    True Anomaly
  17. How does a satellite's orbit inclination relate to its ground trace?
    Its determines the maximum Latitude the Ground trace will reach both above and below the Equator
  18. What are the four Orbits (Regime)?
    LEO @ 200-900 miles from the Earths surface / rotating 90 to 120 minutes orbital periods

    MEO @ ~ 900 to 22,000 miles / ~2 to 23.5 hour orbital periods

    GEO @ typically circular ~ 22,300 miles / ~24 hour period

    HEO @ Lng dwell time over the poles / 200 to 22,000 miles / ~12 hour period
  19. What is the Primary mission of LEO orbits (regime)?
    • *ISR (imagery)
    • SATCOM (Iridium)
    • *Weather
    • *Manned Missions
  20. What is the Primary mission of MEO orbits (regime)?
    GPS
  21. What is the Primary mission of GEO orbits (regime)?
    • SATCOM 
    • Missile Warning
  22. What is the Primary mission of HEO orbits (regime)?
    • High Latitude
    • COMMS
    • Missile Warning
  23. What are the sub-categories of GEO orbits (regime)?
    • Geostationary - near zero
    • Geosynchronous - any inclination
  24. What are the sub-categories of LEO orbits (regime)?
    • Polar (90 degrees inclination
    • Sun-synchronous
  25. What are the sub-categories of MEO orbits (regime)?
    Semi-synchronous (12-hour orbit period)
  26. What are the sub-categories of HEO orbits (regime)?
    Molniya (Russian developed)
  27. What is sun-synchronous orbit?
    It's the orbit where satellites passes over the same part of the earth at the same time of the day which allows shadow analysis.
  28. Describe Electromagnetic Radiation.
    Particles called photons traveling in a wave-like pattern at the speed of light.
  29. As energy increases, the wavelength shortens. As energy decreases the wavelength lengthens. What is this known as?
    Inversely Proportional relationship
  30. What organization is responsible for regulation Federal us of the EM Spectrum?
    National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA)
  31. The Microwave portion of the spectrum is used for what military systems?
    • SATCOM
    • GPS
    • Radars
  32. Far infrared waves are thermal and are used in various IR assets including?
    Overhead Persistant Infrared (OPIR)
  33. What operations does Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations include?
    • Electromagnetic Warfare
    • Electromagnetic Spectrum Management
  34. What is increasingly leading to unintentional spectrum interference?
    Spectrum Congestion and Competiton
  35. What portion of the spectrum has the lowest frequency? (TV, Wireless networks, radio)
    Radia Waves
  36. What portion of the spectrum has the most energy frequency?
    GAMMA Rays
  37. Satellite drag affects satellites in what orbital regime?
    LEO, because of its density
  38. What network is important to understanding the effects of Drag?
    Space Surveillance Network
  39. Solar conjunction affects satellites in what orbital regime?
    GEO
  40. What are the effects of Solar Conjunction?
    • Auto tracking antenna
    • Data loss while aperture is aligned with the sun
  41. How do we mitigate the effects of a Solar Conjunction?
    • Disable auto-track
    • Schedule data transmission around outage
    • Shift to an alternate COMMs Path
  42. Ionospheric scintillation can significantly disrupt the performance of lower frequency COMMS like?
    • UHF
    • SATCOM
    • GPS
  43. Ionospheric Scintillation is limited to ___________ above and below the ________ and __________regions.
    • +/- 20 degrees
    • equator and polar
  44. Ionospheric Scintillation is most prevalent at night from __________ until __________ local time but can persist.
    dusk 

    dawn
Author
RustyHurley
ID
363615
Card Set
Space Cadre Basic Course
Description
Updated