MSL Cruise Phase |
MSL Cruise Phase |
Nov 26 2011, 03:50 PM
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#1
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Okay, we're off and running! Please post all comments relating to MSL's transit to Mars here.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Nov 28 2011, 12:54 AM
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#31
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 89 Joined: 25-January 06 Member No.: 661 |
Hi all,
Please take a look at the observations made by Duncan Waldron (of the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia). Images and a movie of the Centaur upper stage venting and (remarkably MSL just after separation) from yesterday's launch: http://www.facebook.com/BrisbanePlanetarium Amazing. I shared it with our team here too. -Rob |
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Nov 28 2011, 12:59 AM
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#32
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
...words utterly fail me. Just remarkable.
Many thanks for posting this, Rob! -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Nov 28 2011, 03:05 AM
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#33
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Member Group: Members Posts: 399 Joined: 28-August 07 From: San Francisco Member No.: 3511 |
WOW! Thanks for sharing another "Heimdall" moment
-------------------- 'She drove until the wheels fell off...'
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Nov 28 2011, 08:36 AM
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#34
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Member Group: Members Posts: 214 Joined: 30-December 05 Member No.: 628 |
Quote: http://www.facebook.com/BrisbanePlanetarium
"Other than observations by Brisbane Planetarium staff on Sunday, no other reports have been received of observations of the Mars Science Laboratory, Centaur rocket stage and plume thousands of kilometres out from Earth. Looks like only three of us saw this unique sight. Timings - Curator Mark Rigby (whose camera plays up!) first sees the plume at 2:15am and it is like a one-degree elongated cloud of VERY easy naked eye brightness. Duncan Waldron sees it about 2:30pm and begins photography as it fades. Nonetheless, he captures a unique timelapse covering 21 minutes until 3am" Sounds familiar. I believe I saw New Horizons off from a similar vantage point. See post 460 in the NH launch thread. (That will remain forever unconfirmed, but it's still interesting to know that these things can be naked-eye visible at such distances.) http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...2050&st=450 |
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Guest_Oersted_* |
Nov 28 2011, 01:12 PM
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#35
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Guests |
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Guest_Oersted_* |
Nov 28 2011, 03:10 PM
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#36
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Guests |
On my youtube page of MSL launch movies I am getting some questions. I have managed to answer two of them, but I need an answer for the third, which I interpret as "cruise speed of MSL"... Could someone in here maybe help me with the answer?
http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=k9xpePuiqA8 "pl inside earth gravity how maney km/h speed?" - I replied 11,2 km/s, which I believe is more or less the correct the escape velocity. "after psssing gravity how maney km/h?" - Hmmm... "when msl will reach mars?" - I replied August 2012. |
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Nov 28 2011, 03:57 PM
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#37
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
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Nov 28 2011, 08:58 PM
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#38
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 89 Joined: 27-August 05 From: Eccentric Mars orbit Member No.: 477 |
(Full inline quote removed- Mod)
The guys at JPL SSD (that do the Horizons ephemeris program) got the spice kernel for a projected launch at what happened to be the actual launch time, 26 Nov at start of window. Since the launch was accurate (<0.1 sigma) this is probably pretty good. You can't get the kernel from them, but you can run Horizons and get any form of vectors or elements you want, which may be even better than a kernel. Earth departure according to the kernel: Kernel starts at 2011-NOV-26 15:52:12.3830 CT (not UTC, about a minute difference. UTC is 2011-11-26T15:51:06.200 at kernel start) Periapse was 798.736 seconds before this, 13m18.736 seconds, so periapse was at 2011-Nov-26 15:38:53.647 CT (15:37:47.464 UTC) Periapse distance: 6572.438km from the center of the Earth, or about 194km altitude Eccentricity: 1.17677 From this, velocity at periapse was 11.490km/s. This was 476m/s above escape speed at this altitude. Hyperbolic excess speed (v_inf, eventual speed of departure from Earth) is 3.274km/s, for a C3 of 10.721 Spaceflightnow reported centaur main engine start 2 at 32:40 MET (15:34:40 UTC) and cutoff at 40:30 MET(15:42:30 UTC) so theoretical periapse is during the centaur burn, which is kind of as expected. The second burn also was used to increase the inclination, so it was not purely in plane. The parking orbit was something like 28deg inclination, while departure was at 34.5deg. This is weird, since you should be able to launch at an azimuth such that no plane change is needed in the second burn. |
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Nov 28 2011, 09:51 PM
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#39
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Member Group: Members Posts: 121 Joined: 26-June 04 From: Austria Member No.: 89 |
Here you could see Curiosity 10 hours 30 minutes after launch - taken by Austrian amateur Gerhard Dangl:
http://www.dangl.at/2011/msl/msl.htm Video here: http://www.dangl.at/2011/msl/msl.avi very good result in my opinion ! Robert |
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Guest_Bobby_* |
Nov 29 2011, 12:40 AM
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#40
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Guests |
Question? Is there a site either through JPL or another place that shows where MSL is now. A tracking site showing location. I can't seem to find one.
Thanks. |
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Nov 29 2011, 12:49 AM
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#41
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Member Group: Members Posts: 540 Joined: 25-October 05 From: California Member No.: 535 |
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/
MSL's position should eventually be posted on this page EDIT: And this page as well: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/whereistherovernow/ -------------------- 2011 JPL Tweetup photos: http://www.rich-parno.com/aa_jpltweetup.html
http://human-spaceflight.blogspot.com |
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Nov 30 2011, 04:12 AM
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#42
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 3108 Joined: 21-December 05 From: Canberra, Australia Member No.: 615 |
As usual, Eyes on the Solar System can take us all on a ride throughout MSL's cruise phase.
From the Twitter site: Preliminary @MarsCuriosity trajectory is in. http://1.usa.gov/tU6T8m to ride onboard looking back at Earth http://twitpic.com/7lqw60 TIP: If you haven't used Eyes on the Solar System - DO SO! Note: You will need to download the Unity player plug-in for your browser (it'll tell you if you haven't already got it). |
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Nov 30 2011, 05:57 AM
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#43
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2090 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
Is the cruise stage's spin in real-time?
Great attention to detail if so! |
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Nov 30 2011, 12:08 PM
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#44
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
Don't forget, the whole Rover is spinning....lol. Thankfully she does not have a human "brain".
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Nov 30 2011, 12:13 PM
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#45
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
I am not sure how accurate the model is but it looks like there is only one thruster jet on the cruise stage for course corrections, I would have thought 2 would be more reliable.
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