ICE is alive ! |
ICE is alive ! |
Oct 3 2008, 08:22 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
This information from Emily is amazing.
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001673/ ICE is alive and may perhaps be assigned to a new mission. |
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Oct 4 2008, 12:02 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
An ignorant question here, but why would you instruct a still-functioning spacecraft to turn off it's radio transmitter? Wouldn't that almost guarantee to kill the spacecraft (or at least make it harder to find?)
I can't imagine the radio output would be powerful enough to interfere with any radio studies (and long-term tracking info might be kinda fun anyway - to measure all those funky solar pressure effects and so on....) -Mike -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Oct 4 2008, 12:16 PM
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#3
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
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Oct 4 2008, 12:49 PM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Yes, but what's the harm in leaving the spacecraft alive? If you neglect possible radio interference with a DSN station while it's trying to communicate with another s/c on the same frequency and in the same part of the sky, but really, what are the odds of that happening?
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Oct 4 2008, 05:10 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1443 Joined: 26-July 08 Member No.: 4270 |
Yes, but what's the harm in leaving the spacecraft alive? Funding. -------------------- -- Hungry4info (Sirius_Alpha)
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Oct 4 2008, 05:12 PM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Funding. Funding doesn't run the spacecraft radio transmitter. It does not do so whether we're listening or not. -------------------- |
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Oct 4 2008, 05:17 PM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1443 Joined: 26-July 08 Member No.: 4270 |
Oh. I thought one needed to continue funding a mission for it to remain active/operational, like with Voyager. Is the funding to pay the people who work with the spacecraft?
-------------------- -- Hungry4info (Sirius_Alpha)
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Oct 4 2008, 05:42 PM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 754 Joined: 9-February 07 Member No.: 1700 |
Polluting the solar system with radio waves could be a serious issue as we develop more sensitive instruments for listening to the cosmos.
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Oct 4 2008, 05:49 PM
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#9
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Polluting the solar system with radio waves could be a serious issue as we develop more sensitive instruments for listening to the cosmos. I don't see how this can worsen the situation when we've already crowded the Earth orbit with all kinds of radio-active stuff. As along as it's tracked and catalogued, no confusion should arise. We might as well turn the Voyagers off then - or do missions that radiate, but continue to be funded not classify as "pollution"? -------------------- |
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Oct 4 2008, 10:56 PM
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#10
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Member Group: Members Posts: 754 Joined: 9-February 07 Member No.: 1700 |
I don't see how this can worsen the situation when we've already crowded the Earth orbit with all kinds of radio-active stuff. As along as it's tracked and catalogued, no confusion should arise. We might as well turn the Voyagers off then - or do missions that radiate, but continue to be funded not classify as "pollution"? The Voyagers are providing very valuable information, and they will continue to do so for decades to come, but one day they could be considered our first pieces of interstellar refuse. Near-earth debris is of much more concern! On this topic, I raise the issue of radio pollution only as a possible reason why they wanted to turn it off in 1999. When we tried to contact it, it was right where we thought it would be, but what if it wasn't? Location of the source could be a big issue. If post-mission ICE is in an earth-type orbit around the sun, still sending signals, but we can't control it, or can't locate it, then we have created a piece of interplanetary radio debris that follows us around, pointed at earth. While similar to no-longer-useful near-earth radio transmissions, we do have precise tracking of earth-orbiting radio satellites, both active and inactive. As we refine our space-based radio observations, we're getting more sensitive cosmic ears. A forgotten spacecraft floating in interplanetary space that should have had its transmitter turned off would create unnecessary work for a mission team. It's a bit like the space debris problem -- if ICE were transmitting and nobody remembered leaving it on, it might create an unnecessary crisis. |
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