Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: Satellite retrieval Message-ID: <4616@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Sun, 11-Nov-84 00:07:24 EST Article-I.D.: utzoo.4616 Posted: Sun Nov 11 00:07:24 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 11-Nov-84 00:07:24 EST References: <4152@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 20 > Plane changes are notoriously expensive in terms of fuel. Thus it makes > sense to me that the plane change should be accomplished mainly by the > PAM first stage, since that would mean that the first stage would not have to > push all the plane-change fuel up to a 22Kmile apogee. ... The other side of the coin is that plane changes are much less expensive at apogee, because velocities are lower and hence delta-V for a plane change is lower. My recollection is that orthodox wisdom was "do your plane changes at apogee", but more sophisticated analysis may alter this rule nowadays. > By the way, isn't the AKM, in this case, a second stage to the PAM, rather > than a built-in part of the comsats? As far as I know, the PAM is entirely a single-stage unit. The AKM is a built-in part of the satellite in a sense, although I believe it is often jettisoned after doing its thing. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry