Talk:Interstellar Boundary Explorer

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The dimensions of the orbit of IBEX as given in the table (box) disagree strongly and vastly with the number that are given in references in this satellite, and furthermore, disagree vastly with the numbers that are given within the text of the Wikipedia article itself on the IBEX. Things are just wacky and misleading here.

I have the impression / idea that the numbers that are given in the table are just the mumbers for the initial elliptical orbit of the IBEX, and that an additional rocket firing was taken effect at the apogee to raise the perigee of the orbit of the IBEX satellite. In fact, an object in an elliptical orbit with a perigee of ony 226 kilometers would be expected to decay out of orbit pretty rapidly -- because it would get measurable atmospheric drag in each pass through the perigee.

Note that "periapsis" is the general term for any orbit, but "perigee" is the term for orbits around the Earth. Likewise, "apoapsis" is the general term for any orbit, but "apogee" applies to the Earth. I think that the Wikipedia is wrong in not providing a different table (box) for Earth ortbits, with correct terms for the Earth, and they are wrong in not allowing the words to be editied.

Furthermore, the correct terms for orbits around the Moon are "perilune" and "apolune". Likewise, the correct terms for orbits around the Sun are "apheliion" and "perihelion". 98.67.174.103 (talk) 19:58, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Giving the dimensions of the initial transfer orbit was not only careless, but also it was misleading, since the IBEX was very shortly transferred to a much higher orbit, by firing an on-board solid-rocket booster at the apogee to raise the perigee by many thousands of kilometers. What the reader wants to know is what kind of orbit the IBEX is in now, or close to it.

By the way, for all satellite orbits, the proper way to raise the apogee is to fire the rocket at the perigee, in such a way as to increase the speed at perigee. On the other hand, the proper way to raise the perigee is to fire the rocket at the apogee, in such a way as to increase the satellites momentum/energy in the orbit. This causes the perigee to move farther away from the earth. The satellite's orbital speed does not go up (in fact it goes down), but the orbit contains more potential energy.

98.67.174.103 (talk) 21:25, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Proposed automatic updating of orbital elements

I've proposed that this article be included in a trial involving using a bot to update orbital elements automatically on a fortnightly basis. I've started a discussion at WikiProject Spaceflight regarding this article and nine others, and would welcome some input from the users involved in maintaining the pages in question. --W. D. Graham 21:00, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

What data does it actually send back?

The section talking about the data transfer rate made me wonder... is that rather blocky skymap all the satellite sends back? Or is there other data as well? I count roughly 64x32 pixels there, or 2048 total. If the data rate ("1/20th of a 320k cable modem") is roughly 16000 bits/sec, that means it can update the entire thing in about one second, if each pixel is reported with 8-bit accuracy. 4 seconds, if it's 32-bit, or 12 seconds for a very high precision floating point format.

Seems that transmitting even that fast is somewhat overkill, then, unless there's only enough time for about 30 seconds of communication with each uplink. So, does it do anything else with its airtime? 209.93.141.17 (talk) 04:26, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

It did not transmit any maps. It transmitted data for individual events of which only 500+100 per day were true events and all other events being noise. The transmitted data included many parameters: time, spacecraft attitude, voltage drop (proxy for energy), event type, information about coincidences etc. Ruslik_Zero 12:38, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

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IBEX does not detect Astrospheres

I have reverted the statement "The spacecraft has also imaged stellar-wind bubbles, called "astrospheres", around other stars, as well as the tails from these astrospheres.", which has appeared here twice(!) already. It seems that some people misunderstood the phrase "We have imaged other bubbles, called astrospheres, around other stars, as well as the tails from these astrospheres." in reference http://ibex.swri.edu/archive/2013.07.10.shtml . "We have imaged" means observations by optical telescopes. IBEX, however, sees neutral particles and looks hardly beyond the edge of the heliosphere (i.e. 100000 times less than the distance to the nearest stars). -- Wassermaus (talk) 12:25, 23 September 2018 (UTC)