[X] My Assistant

[Toma B]

...just find this...

JPL radar model of Itokawa!!!

Source:

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[tedstryk]

...just find this...

JPL radar model of Itokawa!!!

Source:

Cool! Great find.

[Phil Stooke]

Phil reporting from vacation la-la-land... there is a much more detailed up-to-date model of Itokawa from more recent radar data. I will post info when home on 19th...

Phil

[paxdan]

Phil reporting from vacation la-la-land... there is a much more detailed up-to-date model of Itokawa from more recent radar data. I will post info when home on 19th...

Phil

you tease

[Phil Stooke]

Oh yes, I'm a tease.

This shape result will be revealed at the DPS in September (Ostro has a good abstract on it), but an animation of it can be found at:

http://www.jaxa.jp/news_topics/column/no13/p3_e.html

(lower on page).

I made a composite view of different sides by grabbing frames from it. But I shouldn't really post it! So just look at the animation. When I get back to my office I might be able to do more.

Phil

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Given the fact that Japan has now added to its near-perfect record of recent space failure by losing the crucial instrument on Astro-E2 due to a liquid helium leak, I sincerely hope they don't bungle Hayabusa. If they do, maybe they had better consider getting out of space exploration completely until they either fund it properly and/or revamp their management system.

[tedstryk]

Given the fact that Japan has now added to its near-perfect record of recent space failure by losing the crucial instrument on Astro-E2 due to a liquid helium leak, I sincerely hope they don't bungle Hayabusa.  If they do, maybe they had better consider getting out of space exploration completely until they either fund it properly and/or revamp their management system.

Glad people didn't say that of us after the sixth consecutive Ranger failure, after all the Pioneer Moon failures, and the fact that the first two Mariner pairs lost a spacecraft and the Mariner 4 spacecraft had to have its ultraviolet photometer removed and had a camera light leak.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

First, all the Pioneer Moon failures were launch failures very early in the US space program -- akin to the inability Japan had to successfully launch a satellite for 4 straight years. Their current monotonous parade of failures, however, is occurring at a time when they SHOULD have a command of space technology, and in fact they used to have a much better success record. One internal government study had already indicated that much of this was due to attempts to fly wildly overambitious missions on much too small a budget -- but the problems seem to be continuing even after the measures they had announced to try to correct this.

Second, JPL DID come within a hair of having the Ranger program taken away from them, after four straight spacecraft failures. Had Ranger 7 failed, they certainly would have had it taken away from them, and they would have deserved it. Well, Japan's current run of spacecraft failures -- not even counting their recent booster failures -- goes beyond that point.

[maycm]

Distance to target -

August 1st : 63,808km
August 11th : 34,058km

[djellison]

Wow - I wonder if they'll use the ion engine all the way up to arrival - or if they'll coast in and then come to a near standstill with thrusters.

At this rate - they'll be there in another 10 days

Doug

[dilo]

So close... Any asteroid image???????

[deglr6328]

I'm confused, this is non US so is that really a comma or a decimal....?

[djellison]

No - it's really <10% of the earth-moon distance.

Doug

[Guest_Myran_*]

deglr6328 asked; I'm confused, this is non US so is that really a comma or a decimal....?

Comma is used in many countries for "decimal point", including mine.

So August 11 distance is 34 058 km and not 34 km 58 m.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

A new piece on the Astro-E2 failure (and it IS a failure -- it ruins the central scientific purpose of the mission, and NASA is considering yanking its grants to help continue the mission):

http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html (August 11 entry).

It turns out that this was not exactly unexpected -- the helium coolant system had been showing a whole series of "mysterious" but serious malfunctions since July 29, and finally simply ran out of helium. (The Japanese space agency didn't utter a word about any of this until the final, irreversible failure.) Moreover, it does seem likely that the satellite, like so many other Japanese space failures, was simply underfunded -- its development cost was only $150 million, for a quite sophisticated astronomy satellite. Shades of Dan Goldin!

Now it will be at least another five years before the X-ray Calorimeter Spectrometer -- originally intended to be a very important part of the Chandra Observatory -- can get a third chance to fly. One hopes that Hayabusa will do better, but -- given the solar power problem which it's already developed -- I'm not counting on it.