Stardust-NExT, Revisiting Tempel 1 |
Stardust-NExT, Revisiting Tempel 1 |
Dec 28 2010, 01:46 PM
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#1
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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 |
I thought it was time to start a new thread on Stardust's flyby of Tempel 1, the first time a comet receives a second visit from a spacecraft one perihelion later.
There was an interesting story about this on Spaceflight now recently http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1012/23stardustnext/ note that the flyby will be around 23.30 eastern time on 14 February, so thinking in GMT it will not happen on Valentine's day. Stardust should have started imaging Tempel 1 twice weekly in mid-December, but there is nothing yet on the mission site http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html see also http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/m...tatus10_q4.html for updates on the mission status |
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Mar 24 2011, 12:53 PM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10191 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
In orbital dynamics there's no such thing as a 'long slow spiral into the sun'. You make a change in velocity with the rocket burn, that defines a new orbit, and you stay in that orbit forever unless something else disturbs you (like a planetary flyby). The main concern here was that the orbit would not impact Mars or Earth. The small and unpredictable thrust most likely made only a small difference to the orbit anyway.
Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Mar 25 2011, 12:21 AM
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#3
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
The main concern here was that the orbit would not impact Mars or Earth. If a controllable (key word) impact with Earth were feasible, I'd actually consider that a useful EOL maneuver. Not only would the spacecraft be decisively desposed of, but if done in a widely observable (but safe) way it would be a nice outreach opportunity...an artificial bolide. Perhaps this will be practical for some future mission. -------------------- 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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