Hayabusa - The Return To Earth, The voyage home |
Hayabusa - The Return To Earth, The voyage home |
Nov 28 2005, 03:08 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 510 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Southeast Michigan Member No.: 209 |
...starting a new thread for Hayabusa's sampling feedback and the return voyage.
After its nail-biting success in November, will there be enough fuel for the Falcon to make it home? -------------------- --O'Dave
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Dec 2 2005, 08:31 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 |
There many options. Wait for a while until before than December 10, next saturday to know what will be the final decision for the home return.
1) Travel along with Itokawa and then direct toward to Earth alone (more than 3 years). Their risks are on the power supply or batteries when it approaches to Mars' orbit where there are less sun radiation. 2) Travel alone back home (1 1/2 year). It depends upon to the health of thrusters. 3) Travel along with Itokawa and then wait for a rendezvous probe which will tug it until dropping to Earth. 4) Land on Itokawa and stay dormant upon the future visit. 5) Abandon it to his fate by wandering on the space. Rodolfo |
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Dec 2 2005, 08:45 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
QUOTE (RNeuhaus @ Dec 2 2005, 09:31 PM) There many options. Wait for a while until before than December 10, next saturday to know what will the final decision for the home return. 1) Travel along with Itokawa and then direct toward to Earth alone (more than 3 years) Their risks are on the power supply or batteries when it approaches to Mars' orbit. 2) Travel alone back home (1 1/2 year). Depends upon to the health of thrusters 3) Travel along with Itokawa and then wait for an rendezvous probe which will hawl it until dropping to Earth. 4) Land on Itokawa and stay dormant upon the future visit. 5) Abandon it to his fate by wandering on the space. I really think there are very few options! Option 1) - waiting on-station until the next interplanetary line-up (which might well be many years in the future) *might* work with a probe designed for longevity. Not with Hayabusa, though! 2) - Correct, and the only way to get back home at all. 3) - No, for all sorts of reasons, not least being the fact that we can't even reliably perform such missions in Earth orbit, never mind the depths of space. Anyway, who's paying for a rescue flight - nobody! 4) - 'Dormant' as in, er, deceased. An ex-spacecraft, pining for the Norwegian fjords. I suppose it'd keep the Solar system that bit tidier, and we might see some more closeups on the way down. 5) - Sadly, the most likely outcome. An ion-drive probe has to be *much* smarter and controlled than traditional single-impulse 'artillery' probes, and if the RCS system is almost broken then it's highly unlikely that it'll do more than limp in the general direction of Earth before settling into Solar orbit when the ion drive stops working (at which time we're back in the realms of 'artillery'). Hayabusa is, make no mistake about it, a success - even if no return to Earth is feasible, then it will have carried out an outstanding mission of which JAXA should be very proud. Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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