11.09.2005 07:07
Japanese Hayabusa asteroid practice descent aborted
This is late, it having occurred November 4,
according to the news details
page and the Hayabusa Live
page. But the BBC report that the practice descent and the (later)
Minerva robot surface lander release have been postponed. Asteroid
encounter postponed.
MINERVA (MIcro/Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid) robot lander
weight is less than 600g, has three small color CCD cameras
also equipped with thermal sensors
Previous posts on Hayabusa:
[Hayabusa] took an aim at calibrating its
proximity laser range finders, visibility calibration and image
processing of a target marker as well as deploying a hopping robot
MINERVA.
Down to about 700 meters in attitude, both attitude and trajectory control had been performed via Hayabusa's proprietary autonomous guidance and navigation capability as planned. However, the onboard navigation computer detected anomalous information that did not satisfy the requirement, the abort command was transmitted from the ground at 03:30 GMT on November 4th. The subsequent events were all canceled and the spacecraft fired its chemical engines and started ascent. ...
The project intends to perform another practice descent again. As of today, the rehearsal schedule together with those for two touching-down and sampling have not been decided yet. What caused the interruption and how it is coped with are presently under investigation and the details will be released after it has been identified.
Source: news details
page. Hayabusa is 7.5 km from the asteroid Itokawa.Down to about 700 meters in attitude, both attitude and trajectory control had been performed via Hayabusa's proprietary autonomous guidance and navigation capability as planned. However, the onboard navigation computer detected anomalous information that did not satisfy the requirement, the abort command was transmitted from the ground at 03:30 GMT on November 4th. The subsequent events were all canceled and the spacecraft fired its chemical engines and started ascent. ...
The project intends to perform another practice descent again. As of today, the rehearsal schedule together with those for two touching-down and sampling have not been decided yet. What caused the interruption and how it is coped with are presently under investigation and the details will be released after it has been identified.
MINERVA (MIcro/Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid) robot lander
weight is less than 600g, has three small color CCD cameras
also equipped with thermal sensors
Previous posts on Hayabusa:
11.08.2005 23:37
Inmarsat-4 F2 launch successfully places satellite in geosynchronous transfer orbit
Most of the news stories are still focussing on
the launch, but the press release from Sea Launch Company reports
Daily Wireless has some nice images of the coverage areas of the F1 and F2 satellites and of Inmarsat 8's United States footprint. It also says there that an available F3 could cover parts of Japan and Australia. Inmarsat has an Atlas 5 launch contract, and an Atlas 5 launched the F1, so perhaps the F3 will go up as well.
From Mission log events on the Inmarsat site:
All systems performed nominally throughout
the flight. The Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 5,958 kg
(13,108 lb.) satellite to geosynchronous
transfer orbit, on its way to a final orbital position of 53
degrees West Longitude. A ground station at Lake Cowichan, in
British Columbia, acquired the first signal from the satellite less
than 25 minutes after spacecraft separation, as planned.
Source: Sea Launch
Delivers Inmarsat-4 Satellite to Orbit.Daily Wireless has some nice images of the coverage areas of the F1 and F2 satellites and of Inmarsat 8's United States footprint. It also says there that an available F3 could cover parts of Japan and Australia. Inmarsat has an Atlas 5 launch contract, and an Atlas 5 launched the F1, so perhaps the F3 will go up as well.
From Mission log events on the Inmarsat site:
The satellite will now begin deployment and
testing, with a number of key milestones ahead before being
fully-deployed in geostationary orbit, 35,786 kilometres (22,237
miles) above the Equator, over northern Brazil [at 53 or 54 degrees
West].
11.08.2005 08:31
Inmarsat-4 F2 (6 tons, 3G mobile data service, up to 432kbit/s) set to launch this morning
See the previous post from March 12, 2005,
Inmarsat
4-F1 (6 tons, 3G mobile data service, up to 432kbit/s) in
orbit.
That bird launched from Cape Canaveral. Today's will be from a former oil drilling rig, towed from California to near Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean, by a Russian Zenit-3SL.
Inmarsat home page.
Live web cam of the launch vehicle.
That bird launched from Cape Canaveral. Today's will be from a former oil drilling rig, towed from California to near Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean, by a Russian Zenit-3SL.
Inmarsat home page.
Live web cam of the launch vehicle.
11.03.2005 06:57
Spitzer Space Telescope detects first light
'First light' usually refers to the first images
from a telescope. In this case, it's the light produced by the
first stars to form in the infant universe, perhaps some 200
millions of years after the Big Bang. So reports the BBC at
Glow from
first stars revealed.
Artist rendition of Spitzer in its heliocentric orbit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The observations used in the latest study
were made by the Infrared Array Camera (Irac) on the US space
agency's Spitzer Space Telescope.
The results present the first evidence for cessation of the so-called cosmic Dark Ages.
The term, coined by the English Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, refers to the period in cosmic history when hydrogen and helium atoms had formed but had not yet had the opportunity to condense and ignite as stars.
The press release on the Spitzer Space
Telescope site states that the glow might have been from hot
gas falling into the first black holes.
Scientists See Light that May Be from First Objects in
Universe.The results present the first evidence for cessation of the so-called cosmic Dark Ages.
The term, coined by the English Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, refers to the period in cosmic history when hydrogen and helium atoms had formed but had not yet had the opportunity to condense and ignite as stars.
Artist rendition of Spitzer in its heliocentric orbit.
NASA/JPL-Caltech