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 5 2008, 07:05 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
Two extracts from "Robotic Exploration of the Solar System - vol 2"
On 5 May 1997 NASA terminated ICE operations and support, but the transmitter was purposefully left on in order to allow further tracking, as was done in 1999 when it traveled behind the Sun and the radio signal was used to probe the corona. three options have been identified for further extending the ICE mission after its August 2014 lunar flyby, providing it is still working. The simplest option would be to return the spacecraft to its station in the L1 halo orbit, 32 years after it left it. Another option would be to place it into a highly elliptical Earth orbit whose apogee could be lowered by aerobraking passes through the upper atmosphere until it could be retrieved so that its coating of cometary material could be analyzed and the spacecraft finally donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Finally, ICE could be targeted to make a second flyby of Giacobini–Zinner on 19 September 2018. The original rationale for this option was that it would encounter Giacobini–Zinner a fortnight before NASA’s CONTOUR could do so if that mission were to be extended. |
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Oct 6 2008, 04:13 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 236 Joined: 5-June 08 From: Udon Thani Member No.: 4185 |
Two extracts from "Robotic Exploration of the Solar System - vol 2" I have already pre-ordered as soon as that was possible, vol 1 was very good and looking forward to vol 2, hopefully I receive my copy soon, off course you beat me to it ;-). But my memory was right then, the transmitter was purposefully left on and not accidentally forgotten or something. three options have been identified for further extending the ICE mission after its August 2014 lunar flyby, providing it is still working. The simplest option would be to return the spacecraft to its station in the L1 halo orbit, 32 years after it left it. Another option would be to place it into a highly elliptical Earth orbit whose apogee could be lowered by aerobraking passes through the upper atmosphere until it could be retrieved so that its coating of cometary material could be analyzed and the spacecraft finally donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Finally, ICE could be targeted to make a second flyby of Giacobini–Zinner on 19 September 2018. The original rationale for this option was that it would encounter Giacobini–Zinner a fortnight before NASA’s CONTOUR could do so if that mission were to be extended. How about the engines and the fuel? I suppose all these options require some (minor) course corrections, would we still be able to successfully complete these? Returning it to earth would be the most spectacular however no chance to get a budget for this I suppose unless a really wealthy sponsor jumps in (Google?). Finding cometary material after aerobreaking? I doubt it. Returning it to its home base at L1 would be nice too, just for the fun of completing the 'roundtrip', and if we would be able to get its science payload back to life it might still be useful there. |
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Nov 6 2008, 02:55 PM
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#4
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 6 Joined: 6-November 08 Member No.: 4477 |
I registered on the forums to let you all know.
My girlfriends father actually worked on and was one of the main engineers for this satellite. NASA is very close by in Goddard. Anyway they brought him back on payroll recently and they turned the satellite back on. If you all have any questions I am sure I can get them answered by talking with her dad. He lives right down the street and they are trying to get the satellite back to do more missions and then finally put it in the Smithsonian. |
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