MGS in Trouble, Formerly: MGS in safe mode Options

[tuvas]

Let me just pipe in and say from what I've been able to understand, the space.com article is the far more likely approach to what will happen. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/061114_mgs_mro.html . It seems to cover the main concerns better than the other articles posted by other news sources.

[ElkGroveDan]

Anyone who followed the MPL post-landing story will have been through this...

....that was excruciating. I never want to go through that again.

[Marz]

....that was excruciating. I never want to go through that again.

Yeah, like with Beagle...

It's so easy to take orbiters for granted, but it really shows what a knife edge dance it is to keep power and communications and camera orientation all working without a hitch.

On an quasi-unrelated note, I wonder how much it would cost to build some redundancy into the DSN. Every blue moon, there seems to be some mission-impacting loss of communication - either a mouse has chewed through a cable, or a space probe goes on the fritz during the comm window for another mission, etc... it almost seems like an achillies heel that one day could really cause a major loss of data. Maybe it's time to build some extra nodes, like in Iceland and/or south Argentina or something?

[Stu]

Yeah, like with Beagle...

Oh, that was a horrible, dragging, endless, check-Ceefax-and-websites-every-five-minutes Christmas Day.... ((shudders at the memory))...

[djellison]

Maybe it's time to build some extra nodes, like in Iceland and/or south Argentina or something?

Or maybe it's just time the DSN got the investment it deserves to install multiple 70m assets at each station, or the arrays of mass produced 12m dishes suggested at IAC.
http://www.iac-paper.org/abstractcd/2006/a...-06-B3.1.03.pdf



Doug

[elakdawalla]

See also my notes from the Bob Preston talk at last May's OPAG meeting:
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000570/

Upgrading infrastructure isn't a sexy project, but deep space communications really do represent a bottleneck, and the lack of upgrades to the DSN is harming our ability to make the most of our deep space assets. It's time for those arrays of 12-meter antennas to be built -- that would give the DSN so much more flexibility.

--Emily

[djellison]

"Spitzer, which trails Earth in its orbit, now needs the 70-meter dishes."

I did NOT know that - wow....that's a serious stretch on resources - I'd forgotten about that write up - it reads pretty much the same as the one I saw at IAC really.

Doug

[odave]

While I'm very concerned about MGS, I'm not feeling the anxiety or anguish like I did with MPL and Beagle. To use a human analogy, while then death of anyone is tragic, the death of a small child seems especially so considering the loss of all that potential - a whole life never realized. If MGS has passed, I'll be sad and lift my glass to her accomplishments. I've got my fingers crossed, though!

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/061114_mgs_mro.html

There’s a feeling that maybe the well-used MGS felt it was time to sign off.

On the 10th anniversary of MGS in space—November 7—that’s the same day that MRO cranked up its primary science tasks.

“It really seems like there’s some fate involved in this,” Sidney said. “MGS knew it was time to retire.”


awwwwwww

[MarkL]

It's like losing an old friend. I remember watching the aerobraking page way back when and following MGS' progress. It's the mission that really "cracked open" Mars for us to explore in my view. And many of us were able to actually tell the thing what to take photos of which was phenomenal. Lets hope it can be recovered as MOC is still a terrific instrument. It does, though seem like handing off the baton, given the timing.

[tuvas]

I should also add in that if this process can be accomplished, it will be extremely difficult, and thus there isn't a fixed day assigned to make the attempt to photograph MGS, only that the attempt should be made reasonably soon, but not to disturb any critical science/ Phoenix endevours.

[Decepticon]

I was hoping they would use the last part of this funded mission to explore PHOBOS.

[mcaplinger]

I should also add in that if this process can be accomplished, it will be extremely difficult...

What's so difficult about it? Lookheed-Martin designs the slew and they tell you when to start imaging. At least, that's how the Odyssey image by MGS was done. Doesn't sound too hard to me.

[ugordan]

One thing Emily pointed out in her blog is that the s/c has been out of contact for 9 days. Its orbit is not exactly nailed down anymore. HiRISE attempts to image the predicted locations might be futile, resulting in huge amounts of data of empty space. I'm actually pretty skeptical they'll be able to pull it off easily.

[climber]

If I understood it right they're doing a kinda long exposure and hope that MGS will show somewhere on the picture and then they can deduce where it is and shoot in the rigth direction a few days later. Did I get it right?