SPHERE, Formation flight experiments on ISS |
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SPHERE, Formation flight experiments on ISS |
 Apr 25 2006, 11:02 PM
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 Senior Member  Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239  |
The MIT Space Systems Laboratory is developing the SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) formation flight testbed to provide the Air Force and NASA with a long term, replenishable, and upgradable testbed for the validation of high risk metrology, control, and autonomy technologies. The technologies are critical to the operation of distributed satellite and docking missions such as Terrestrial Planet Finder and Orbital Express.
The first batch of test 'vehicles' are aboard the latest Progress craft to reach the ISS - more will follow on the next Shuttle flight. http://ssl.mit.edu/spheres/ Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Apr 26 2006, 12:58 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
-------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Apr 26 2006, 01:01 PM
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
I wonder if these could be turned into miniprobes, say for injecting into
the Saturnian ring system? -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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May 22 2006, 10:54 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
The SPHERE test appears to have taken place:
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Williams...ce_Station.html Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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