2 Mars Missions Set For Arrival, Both Prepare for Orbital Maneuvers 65
As reported by the BBC, NASA's Maven Mars orbiter has nearly reached the red planet, and will undergo a 33-minute rocket burn to slow its course.
Monday's big manoeuvre on Maven's engines will place the satellite in a high, elliptical, 35-hour orbit around the planet. Confirmation of capture should be received on Earth shortly after 0220 GMT (2220 EDT Sunday; 0320 BST). "We should have a preliminary answer within just a few minutes after the end of the burn," said [principal investigator professor Bruce] Jakosky. In the coming weeks, engineers will then work to bring Maven into a regular 4.5-hour, operational orbit that takes the probe as close as 150km to Mars but also sends it out to 6,200km.
India's first mission to Mars faces a critical test as it does a similar maneuver -- firing of a rocket to slow its travel as it approaches Mars orbit.
NASA/ESA Astronomy News Sites? (Score:2)
What are some of the best astronomy-specific news sites? I know that each individual agency has their own news sites, but would like to find a site that gathers everything in one place.
Re:NASA/ESA Astronomy News Sites? (Score:5, Informative)
Universe Today
http://www.universetoday.com/1... [universetoday.com]
Re:NASA/ESA Astronomy News Sites? (Score:5, Informative)
The Planetary Society [planetary.org] also has decent in-depth coverage of (usually unmanned) spaceflight.
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this one has news tailor made for each individual. http://www.astrology.com/your-... [astrology.com]
Re:a collision wouldn't surprise me (Score:5, Informative)
For somw reason, it wouldn't surprise me if these two craft collided, despite being the only two approaching the entire planet. It just seems that any time a government spends a lot of money to do anything, it normally ends with a fail worthy of Monty Python .
There's a lot of exciting stuff happening right now. The Dawn mission is on its way to get a close look at Ceres in April next year. Rosetta is sending a lander onto a comet (which is about to do the exciting thing for comets - i.e. go near the sun). New Horizons is going to fly past Pluto next July. There are two rovers exploring Mars. Not to mention Cassini, Messenger, etc. You can be negative if you like, but I think these missions are pretty amazing.
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Re:a collision wouldn't surprise me (Score:4, Insightful)
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What, this one [wikipedia.org]? An autonomous rendezvous test satellite that bashed into the derelict satellite it was practising with?
I mean, the whole point of that mission was to get close, tho not quite that close.
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No, if the two probes fell in love, a jibbering Roman god poked at them with a spear, the whole lot were then swallowed by a cross between a police constable and a space hopper, followed by dramatic music and a cut to a documentary about historical figures knitting, then it would be worthy of Monty Python.
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While it could happen (technically almost anything can happen in an infinite universe), it is far more likely that the Swedish Women's Volleyball team will burst into your room in the next five seconds and give you death by snu-snu.
Re:a collision wouldn't surprise me (Score:5, Informative)
You have no idea about how big the vastness of space is. The chance of them colliding is like the chance of two bullets being fired in a high arc across New York city, and them colliding. Sure that chance happens once per orbit, but its simply not going to happen especially as they both will eventually establish stable orbits that simply will never cross.
That's the point (Score:1)
The point went right over your head, didn't it. The odds of that happening are astronomical, literally. Yet, it wouldn't be all that surprising if a government agency still managed to screw it up, against all odds - to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
see also, Monty Python. Killer rabbits unlikely (Score:2)
Also, you might want to check out Monty Python sometime.
The feared killer rabbit is a favorite. Encountering a killer rabbit, and being forced to defend yourself with the Holy Hand Grenade, is approximately as likely as said collision. Hence the Monty Python reference. Yet governments do indeed fight "holy wars", presumably with holy hand grenades, because nothing is too ridiculous for a government.
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Not all fail. Mars climate orbiter (Score:2)
Not EVERYTHING the government does us a total failure, of course.
They do tend to fail in comic ways, and often spectacularly. Mars climate orbiter, anyone? Robin Williams did a great bit about that.
Do you REALLY want to argue the position that governments aren't prone to ridiculous screwups? You can point to a couple of projects that ended up working. On the other side are thousands of projects and trillions of dollars that all ended in utter fail. The entire Bush II administration- mostly fail. His
For those who don't get it, different altitudes (Score:5, Funny)
For those who don't quite understand that "worthy of Monty Python " implies something ridiculous, so improbable as to be almost beyond imagination, let mw get serious for a moment.
They will not collide because the only time they will be "near" each other they'll be at very different altitudes from the Martian surface. One will be 10,000 meters above the surface while the other is 33,000 feet above. Veteran scientists who worked on the Mars climate orbiter have confirmed this is plenty of separation between the two.
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It just seems that any time a government spends a lot of money to do anything, it normally ends with a fail worthy of Monty Python.
So, had you had the chance, you'd have volunteered to observe The Gadget exploding from the base of its tower? I mean, it's going to fail anyway, right?
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It just seems that any time a government spends a lot of money to do anything, it normally ends with a fail worthy of Monty Python
Lets be fair here, the last thing they did on Mars was place a 1 ton nuclear powered tank on the surface using a rocket powered crane, so they've obviously come along way since that unfortunate units mixup...
Martian first! (Score:2)
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Before we couldn't spoof it, now we can (Score:2)
Easy, you just have to send a couple of guys, let's call them Neil and Buzz, to set up equipment to reflect the signal :)
OK, so it's just to reflect lasers, but that's close enough for a bad joke.
For an added bonus have one of them so on top of things that he's able to calculate burns for a transfer orbit when the computer is down.
Think of the tinfoil hatters... (Score:2)
...what if they collided, and both missions suddenly failed?
OK, I'd have to admit that would be kind of hilarious (setting aside the decades of work and hundreds of millions of $$ invested).
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Or if one accidentally gets metric unit commands while the other accidentally gets Imperial English unit commands.
Maven success (Score:5, Informative)
The burn was successful and Maven is in orbit. It looks like the engines were under-performing in some way though and they will have to tweak the orbit some as a result.
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Under-performing rockets? Must be a Monday on Mars. I know the feeling.
Comment removed (Score:3)
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... why the Red Planet changed from a relatively warm and wet place ... to the cold, arid world it is today.
If it were Venus it would be easy to explain - menopause.
Added value? (Score:2)
Do we need yet more headlines that say "Mars may have supported life one billion years ago"?
Jebadiah Kerman is on board! (Score:1)
Dont worry, Jeb Kerman is on board so all is well.
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15 days faster! Speed costs you money... (MAVEN launched November 18th, 2013, MOM launched November 5th 2013 and will get there Tuesday EST, two days after MAVEN)
Also the MAVEN has state-of-the-art science on board - this isn't our first dance with Mars. MOM is more of a test bed to prove ISRO has the launch facilities and technology to send interplanetary probes, now they can vie for more ambitious projects.
Mangalyaan from India clears milestone (Score:1)
Shit just got real! (Score:1)
Cost of Mangalyaan = 5.6 mi/$ (Score:1)
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Now cheaper than a taxi, but still more expensive than driving your own car to Mars.
in the dark? (Score:2)
in the dark?
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The white zone is for loading and unloading only...there is no stopping in the red zone.
India's MOM has also made it! (Score:1)