NASA Dawn Asteroid Mission Told to "Stand Back Up", Reinstated! |
NASA Dawn Asteroid Mission Told to "Stand Back Up", Reinstated! |
Mar 28 2006, 07:58 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
Just 'cause I said I would...
Hopefully, though, this whole episode has made its point -- NASA isn't afraid to tell overbudget missions to stand down. I just *really* wish we could get the magnetometer back on the beastie, though... -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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Mar 31 2006, 03:47 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 220 Joined: 13-October 05 Member No.: 528 |
I remember in one of the earlier Discovery mission proposals I read about a mission similar to CONTOUR which would flyby multiple asteroids. It wouldn't seem all that cost effective to only fly by 2-3 asteroids, but I know that in the early days of DAWN they were suggesting that they could fly past as many as 10-12 targets on the way there. I always found that number as overly optimistic, Dawn will have enough on it's plate just getting there, so if they manage 1-2 extra flybys it would be impressive enough. Something I read recently suggested they were now using lower numbers whenever the topic came up.
But has anyone given any serious consideration to taking a Dawn type ion propelled spacecraft and using all of the delta-vee specifically for as many fly-bys as possible? I would think with a couple Earth, Venus, or Mars flybys thrown in to make the orbit more elipitcal, they could potentially survey a very large number of targets. It occurs to me that the instrumentation on DAWN might not be the best for fast flybys, but with the right package this might yield a lot more targets and results than a simple ballistic probe like CONTOUR. And that might make it worth it. All of this is assuming that the Discovery office at NASA isn't really gun shy about ion drive missions right now. |
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