When do we expect the next image?

I don't want to deflect the thread, but you nailed it on the sts-1 issue, we sat down with Jack Garman [still a close friend, currently health-challenged] to thrash it out. Accumulated and shared 'horror stories' DO seem to contribute to wiser flight software designers. Let's press on.

We had a timing flaw stop the very first Space Shuttle launch countdown on April 10, 1981, 30 seconds before launch. I was on console in Mission Control, the hiccup turned out to be inconsequential and soon forgotten.. That's how we came to launch on April 12, Cosmonautics Day.

I agree. Three weeks have passed and not another peep about the success in the Chinese news media. This is very odd.

Unnecessary quoting removed

Acknowledged and agreed!

Thanks! Since the article mentions the actual 3.2 km fly-by, does this mean it was published AFTER the actual fly-by -- or is it dated before the encounter?

ADMIN - Jim, UMSF is a place for discussion and collaboration. It's not a short order grill where you can show up at the counter and make demands. That is exactly how your previous three posts have come across. You have the same resources available to you through the Internet that the rest of us have. Investigate it yourself and let us all know.

You've picked a language I can't handle, please translate the relevant portion. Hsieh hsieh ni.

Source, please?

Good point, and I'd seen that paper -- so was puzzled by total lack of run-up and real-time coverage of the encounter.

To modify my complaint: despite disclosure to the space science community of the planned intercept date [a fact independently discovered and published by foreign astronomers], there was no Chinese media attention to the progress of the mission for months leading up to, and days AFTER, the encounter.

I'm still dismayed by that behavior. And to discourage it happening again, I urge those who share my dismay to pass it on to their Chinese contacts.

It really was out of character of recent Chinese public information release policies, which have been satisfyingly candid and open, even about future plans and actions. We had gotten accustomed to an open publicity policy. Seeing this one exception to it startled me.

On a policy issue note, we must realize that China kept this encounter secret -- even the date -- with the intent, arguably, to cover up any failure. Not revealing it until almost 48 hours after fly-by is a very discouraging retreat to 'Space Race' soviet-style secrecy. Glory and kudos to the spacecraft operators, for sure -- and more to come. Shame on the government information managers.

Tracking to determine the exact course change from the close fly-by will give superb data on asteroid mass. With images that show volume, you get real density data. Accidental or not, the very close fly-by itself is a major scientific experiment.

My thinking exactly. I don't know any interplanetary nav team in the solar system who would AIM at such a fly-by with a required error of +/- 2 km. Is it possible that the aim point was much farther out and this is just an accidental close pass?

thanks. i agree that the technology demonstration of the SEL2 dwell, and the departure to the toutatis intercept point, are awesome new levels of space navigation capabilities. it would be nice to get images but your own blog put that in perspective.

i'm working to get my own media clients to appreciate the accomplishment and not to set artificially high success criteria.

would clementine have faced the same problem with asteroid imaging, or was its survey camera of a different design?

I see a picture of chang'e-2 but can't get translator to work. Any help?

Thanks, Paolo, that's encouraging.

I also found this more recent URL but I can't get my translators to work:
http://news.e23.cn/content/2012-12-10/2012C1000084.html

I beg to differ. When things have been going well, China has released a stream of information, even ahead of actual events. They have been far more open then the Soviets were in Space Race days. I remember and can compare/contrast.

This silence is unusual.

Technical info is great. Hsieh hsieh.

Big picture question: has anybody received any word about the health of the spacecraft in the past two months?

We're only days from the encounter. Is the absence of any news from China something to worry about?

Nov. 26, 2012
MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-219
NASA HOSTS NOV. 29 NEWS CONFERENCE ABOUT MERCURY POLAR REGIONS

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov, 29, to reveal new observations from the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. The briefing will be held in the NASA Headquarters auditorium, located at 300 E St. SW in Washington.
Science Journal has embargoed details until 2 p.m. on Nov. 29. The news conference will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.
NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER spacecraft has been studying Mercury in unprecedented
detail since its historic arrival there in March 2011.

The news conference participants are:
- Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Sean Solomon, MESSENGER Principal Investigator, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, N.Y.
- David Lawrence, MESSENGER Participating Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
- Gregory Neumann, Mercury Laser Altimeter Instrument Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- David Paige, MESSENGER Participating Scientist, University of California, Los Angeles

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Jiji: Japan Confirms Success of Asteroid Probe Mission

Tokyo Jiji Press in English 0202 GMT 16 Nov 10
Tokyo, Nov. 16 (Jiji Press) -- Japan's space agency said Tuesday that sand particles collected by the country's Hayabusa unmanned probe have been confirmed to be from asteroid Itokawa, announcing the world's first successful asteroid probe mission.
After analyzing some 1,500 particles contained in a capsule of Hayabusa, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, concluded that they came from Itokawa. They are the first dust samples ever collected from an asteroid.
Particles from an asteroid are different from samples from meteors in that they have not been exposed to the heat or air associated with atmospheric entry. In addition, materials on an asteroid are thought to have little changed in nature from the time when the solar system was formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
Asteroid samples are thus expected to serve as a clue to help scientists figure out how the solar system and its components, including Earth, were formed.
The collected particles are confirmed to be those of such minerals as olivines and pyroxenes. By examining iron and magnesium included in the samples, JAXA found that the particles have far more iron content than their equivalents on Earth.
The results of the analyses were compared with data obtained through telescopic observations of Itokawa. Following discussions with outside experts, JAXA last week concluded that the particles are from the asteroid.
The particles will be examined further using the Super Photon ring-8, or SPring-8, synchrotron radiation facility in Sayo, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, in January next year.
A part of the container capsule has yet to be opened, and the portion will be examined possibly later this month.
After being launched in May 2003, Hayabusa reached Itokawa, located between Earth and Mars, in September 2005.
In November that year, Hayabusa landed on the asteroid twice to pick up rock fragments. But its rock collection equipment did not function properly.
However, Hayabusa managed to collect the samples because dust was kicked up when it landed on the asteroid.
The spacecraft completed its mission in June this year after travelling some 6 billion kilometers. Hayabusa burned up during its reentry into the atmosphere, but its capsule safely landed on a desert in Australia.
JAXA plans to start developing a new Hayabusa probe in fiscal 2011, aiming to launch it in 2014.

Post moved from Hayabusa Return to Earth thread - Admin

Jiji: Particles Found From Japanese Asteroid Probe Capsule

Tokyo Jiji Press in English 0401 GMT 05 July 2010

Tokyo, July 5 (Jiji Press) -- Japan's space agency said Monday it has found particles inside the capsule that the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa brought back after a journey to the asteroid Itokawa.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, better known as JAXA, made the confirmation by optical microscopy. The particles could be the first samples brought back to Earth from an asteroid.

JAXA said it will analyze elements constituting the particles to see if they are from Itokawa or Earth. Officials said it is possible the particles may be those that had made their way into the capsule before Hayabusa was launched.

Hayabusa returned to Earth on June 13 Japan time after seven years of voyage.

Its body burned up during its reentry into the atmosphere but the capsule safely landed on the desert in southern Australia.

The capsule was later recovered and sent to Japan. On June 24, JAXA stared work to open the capsule at its special facility in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan.

To continue this line of thought:

What is the possible ultimate fate of Ikaros? Is there a maximum communications range?

Can the inspection camera be also used to image asteroids or comets during a fly-by five or ten years from now, or are they only in the jettisoned pods?? We can still do radio occultation science.

Can it achieve solar system escape velocity?

JAXA appears to have removed one of its website links to its announcement of a successful completion of TCM-2. I don’t know if this is a website management mix-up, or an indication that the claim of a successful TCM-2 is now considered premature. Probably an innocent website problem….

JAXA’s general english-language Hayabusa updates are at
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/hayabusa-live...34&blogid=6

Yesterday [may 27], 11:48 AM I recall that I read this message there, and copied it to
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...1741&st=480

2010/05/27 04:59 JST: TCM-2 operation was completed
Category: 2010_English Posted by: HayabusaLive

JAXA confirmed that TCM-2 operation was successfully completed.

By this operation, Hayabusa was guided to the outer rim of the Earth and the distance between Hayabusa and the Earth resulted in around 7,600,000km far.

Hayabusa sysytem is going well.

*TCM: Trajectory Correction Maneuver

But that message is no longer there.

However, it hasn’t vanished entirely.

Ref: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=7382.45
At nasaspaceflight.com the same message was posted by ‘Yoichi’, who gave this link:
Link http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/hayabusa-live...98&catid=34

At THAT link, the message still exists. However, it is not accessible from the JAXA tweet page.

It IS accessible from http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/hayabusa-live...47&blogid=6

Any explanation would be appreciated. It does look like a website content control issue
and not a spacecraft issue.

2010/05/27 04:59 JST: TCM-2 operation was completed
Category: 2010_English Posted by: HayabusaLive

JAXA confirmed that TCM-2 operation was successfully completed.

By this operation, Hayabusa was guided to the outer rim of the Earth and the distance between Hayabusa and the Earth resulted in around 7,600,000km far.

Hayabusa sysytem is going well.

*TCM: Trajectory Correction Maneuver

2010/05/23 07:37:28: Started TCM-2
Category: 2010_English Posted by: HayabusaLive
JAXA would like to announce that TCM-2 operation has commenced.

It will take around 100 hours for ion thrusters to accelerate.

Hayabusa system is going well.

http://hayabusa.jaxa.jp/e/
May 17, 2010
Hayabusa Captured its Home Earth!
Hayabusa successfully photographed its home Earth and Moon on May 12th last week, by using the CCD sensor on the Star Tracker instrument aboard.The Earth was seen so brightly that the image contained strong smear in it, but the image clearly separates the Moon from the Earth.