Stereo Options

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0511/14stereo/


The first spacecraft designed to capture 3-D "stereo" views of the sun and solar wind have been shipped from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md., for their next round of pre-launch tests.

http://www.stereo.jhuapl.edu/

[RNeuhaus]

There will be three months so they will be flying toward to their Lagrange Points: L4 (ahead of Earth) and L5 (behind of Earth).

Enclosed is a cut article from http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/design.shtml


For the first three months after launch, the two observatories will fly in highly elliptical orbits extending from very close to Earth to just beyond the Moon's orbit. STEREO Mission Operations personnel at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will synchronize spacecraft orbits so that about two months after launch they encounter the Moon, at which time one of them is close enough to use the Moon's gravity to redirect it to a position "behind" Earth. Approximately one month later, the second observatory will encounter the Moon again and be redirected to its orbit "ahead" of Earth.

The following link will show you clearly on how the Stereos spacecraft will get into their respective final points: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/movies...REO_phasing.mov

A very elegant fly-by design. It is like to play a ball game. That is to have a very precise aim to get up to there.

Rodolfo

[mars loon]

T-4 minutes from launch as the last hurdles (concerns for toxic vapors over populated areas) are cleared