Nh - The Launch Thread, Godspeed little one |
Nh - The Launch Thread, Godspeed little one |
Jan 16 2006, 03:08 PM
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I thought it was time, with the Atlas V about to roll out - for a new thread for NH for the launch etc.
Someone asked over at the HZ just how NH can go so fast, this was my reply.... QUOTE How do you get a spacecraft to Jupiter in under a year? Easy. Make it very very light, and put it on a very very big rocket. The config of Atlas V rocket being used to launch NH (551 - 5m fairing, 5 solids, and one engine on the Centaur stage ) would typically put 8,670kg into GTO or 20,520 into LEO. New Horizons is 478kg, and it's Star 48B 3rd stage is 2,137kg - so instead of hauling 20 tons, this vehicle is hauling about 2.5 tons thus you get a HUGE velocity out of it. AND, once it's done that, you have the final kick of the 48B, 591 thousand kgs-s (thus accelerating is all a further 3.5 - 4km/s ball park speed, if my maths is right) At launch - the vehicle is 573,160kg. NH is 0.083% of it. Imagine the Apollo entry capsule on top of a Saturn V...tiny tiny tiny... that was 5,800 kg on a 3,038,500kg rocket - 0.191% - more than double that percentage of NH. The cutaway's are almost comical, with this tiny gold-clad box on an enormous vehicle. Basically - it's a LOT of rocket, and not a lot of payload. For comparison, look how much fuss was made of Stardust that entered so quickly. It took >16 hrs to get from the distance of the moon to Utah. NH makes that journey in 9 hours One thing the NH mission is not short of, is superlatives. I'm not one for good luck charms (although I'll eat peanuts during a Martian EDL with the best of them), but this mission has been so long in coming, that it deserves every ounce of luck it can have - the best, most accurate launch possible, the cleanest checkout, and incident free cruise to Jupiter. Goodluck and Godspeed little one, we're with you every step of the way. Doug PS - Alan, you're a credit to your field, spending so much time answering questions and writing the PI Perspectives, it's been a hell of a journey! |
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Jan 18 2006, 03:35 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 648 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Subotica Member No.: 384 |
So what happened now?...did they forget to pay electricity bill?
-------------------- The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.
Jules H. Poincare My "Astrophotos" gallery on flickr... |
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Jan 18 2006, 04:25 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
QUOTE (Toma B @ Jan 18 2006, 09:35 AM) There is a very large weather front traveling across the eastern United States. In a very unusual weather pattern for mid-January, there are scattered severe thunderstorms battering the U.S. east coast from New England all the way down to the Carolinas and Georgia. Believe me, APL wasn't the only place that lost power as these storms passed through. And I wouldn't guarantee that the weather will improve -- the storms are powered, as storms always are, by the temperature and pressure differential between two colliding air masses. The air pushing these storms eastward along the American continent is frigid, and much of the country has had high temperature swings, from one day to the next, of more than 20 degrees C. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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