Questions tagged [goce]
Questions regarding the European Space Agency's Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer, also known as GOCE.
6 questions
5
votes
1
answer
146
views
What "unique control system" modulated GOCE's thrust to compensate for variable atmospheric drag? How did it know how to modulate it?
This answer to How much time did the longest maneuver last? says:
The GOCE satellite mission (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) lasted 55 months (4.6 years) of largely ...
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Exactly how "Ferrari-like" was GOCE? Was its drag coefficient as low as the car's?
This comment mentions:
This relation between drag and mass is taken to a relative (for satellites) extreme in GOCE which I think needed to be close to Earth to accurately sense the changes in gravity,...
4
votes
1
answer
170
views
Relation between GOCE gravity model and Earth shape
There are a couple of viral videos claiming that "NASA shows that Earth is shaped like potato". The source of such videos is 3D visualization of data collected by GOCE satellite (full animation, video ...
6
votes
1
answer
170
views
Is GOCE designed to break up in the atmosphere?
Soon, ESA is planning to deorbit GOCE, letting it burn up in the atmosphere. It seems this has been the plan for a long time - so why won't the satellite be completely annihilated into pieces small ...
9
votes
3
answers
441
views
How can all of GOCE's pieces land in a 20 square yard area?
I was reading this article, and noticed this statement:
The chances that a chunk of GOCE or any other space debris will injure anyone are tiny, but not zero. Floberghagen said the debris will ...
9
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Why do malfunctioning satellites come back to Earth?
In school, I learned that if a satellite moves at a speed $\sqrt{gR}$ (the square root of the product of the acceleration due to gravity and radius of the Earth), then it will remain in Earth's orbit. ...