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#1 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens III - Continued from previous » 2005-02-09 13:00:24

I'm a little disapointed with Huygens. I guess I was waiting for an Earth shattering discovery and so far I just saw a few photos. Don't get me wrong the photos are unbelievable but I thought there would be more discoveries for some reason.

unfortunately, the data from most instruments take quite some time to analyse. Pictures, however, can be delivered to the public almost instantly.

That said, I don't think there will be coming any worldviewshattering discoveries from Huygens. But very interesting ones, I'm sure.

#2 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens III - Continued from previous » 2005-02-05 09:16:51

Actually, this hot spot is already observed with CIRS  smile

#4 Re: Unmanned probes » Disappointment pictures from titan » 2005-01-16 06:53:35

I don't know why people expect all the image processing done perfectly one hour after taking the pictures. This is for a very complex machine. People take for granted days if they shoot foto's of their own.

I guess people are spoiled wih MER and MOC.

edit - added a remark I made somewhere else

just a reminder, Huygens is an ATMOSPHERIC probe. The primary goal is to learn about the atmosphere. Unfortunately, atmosphere is not as suitable for taking pictures as surfaces, so the pictures may look a little dissappointing. However, the main value of this particular mission is not in its ability to take pictures (like it is for MER, which are geologic probes) but taking data from the atmosphere: the detailed composition of the air, isotopes, compositions and number of aerosols, clouds, temperature, you name it: all was measured by Huygens. This will take a while to process though, but will be very usefull.

#5 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens *2* - ...more Saturn/Titan... » 2005-01-13 16:02:53

rik, wow!
I don't think there's any media coverage here in holland, although we can recieve belgian tv of course...
but it will definately make the news tomorrow, whatever the success.

#7 Re: Unmanned probes » SMART-1 - ESA lunar orbiter » 2004-12-19 04:35:26

yes...it's a real shame. and most money goes to launchers and Earth observation missions. Only very few to planetary missions...  sad

slightly less than 2.7 billion euros ($3.4 billion) for ESA

http://dev.space.com/spacenews/europe/b … 11504.html

$16.2 billion for NASA

http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/2658] … mmary/2658

#8 Re: Unmanned probes » SMART-1 - ESA lunar orbiter » 2004-12-18 15:05:05

I think there is simply nothing to report. let's not forget, SMART is NOT an imaging satellite, it's a technology demonstrator mission, and one of its main goals is to test the Ion engine and working with these engines in terms of energy use and orbital mechanics. and that's exactly what it is doing. I think we will have to wait till SMART is in its main science orbit before we get some more pictures.
But that won't be as many as for instance MOC, since this is ESA.
It's a bit unfortunate that ESA is releasing not nearly that many pictures from eg. MarsXpress, Envisat, SMART, but I think ESA is also a lot poorer than NASA. may not be an excuse... But I do think that the pictures they DO release are simply amazing smile And I like that flash Martian globe with the arrows sticking out of it  cool

#9 Re: Interplanetary transportation » Orbital mechanics » 2004-12-04 05:10:29

John...if you want to keep it simple first, you can start with calculating some Hohmann transfer trajectories...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohmann_tr … sfer_orbit

#11 Re: Unmanned probes » SMART-1 - ESA lunar orbiter » 2004-11-15 16:18:16

The qualified lifetime of the thruster is 7000 hours at maximum power, corresponding to a total impulse of 2 x 106 Ns.

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ...id=1539

#12 Re: Unmanned probes » BepiColombo - ESA/JAXA Mercury Orbiters » 2004-11-14 15:40:46

even rockets (or Earth orbiting satellites) go faster than bullets, so something that's passing Earth from a hyperbolic orbit (velocity is larger than the escape velocity) will definately go faster.

bullet speed: up to 1500 m/s:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/Mar … eyra.shtml

Earth orbits: up to 8000 m/s:
http://www.marsacademy.com/traj/traj5.h … /traj5.htm

#13 Re: Unmanned probes » Lunokhod-2 Lunar Rover » 2004-11-14 15:25:14

eleven months. amazing that the MERs are doing the same thing now, but on Mars!

did some searching...
http://pages.preferred.com/~tedstryk/lu … khod1.html
" Lunokhod had traveled 10,540 m"
http://pages.preferred.com/~tedstryk/lu … khod2.html
"Lunokhod 2 operated for about 4 months, covered 37 km of terrain including hilly upland areas and rilles,
and sent back 86 panoramic images and over 80,000 TV pictures."

http://selena.sai.msu.ru/Home/Spacecraf … khod1e.htm
http://selena.sai.msu.ru/Home/Spacecraf … khod2e.htm

http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/1970.htm] … s/1970.htm
http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/1971.htm] … s/1971.htm
http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/1973.htm] … s/1973.htm
(great website!)

#14 Re: Unmanned probes » Mars Express (MEX) - ESA orbiter » 2004-11-13 04:20:45

This could be an indication of an increased orbital speed associated with its secular acceleration, causing the moon to spiral in toward Mars.

ehm...this doesn't look right. an extra acceleration of Phobos would increase its orbital height. I think they mean it the other way around. A decelration causes the height of the orbit to decrease, hence making it speed up (low orbits have higher velocities).

#15 Re: Unmanned probes » BepiColombo - ESA/JAXA Mercury Orbiters » 2004-11-13 04:15:44

i had to look up vulcanoids...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/m … 40126.html

But what I think they mean is, when Mercury is at opposition, it will look away from the Sun, to a region we can't see from Earth.

launch date is at the top of the article you posted (in boldface!  tongue  ): 2012

from ESA itself:
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120391_index_0 … x_0_m.html

#18 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens *2* - ...more Saturn/Titan... » 2004-11-06 05:17:17

P.S.:  Really like that illustration; have seen it before in a previous article.

I always liked this one:

http://www.esa.int/export/externals/ima … ve/181.jpg

though it is faulty (Huygens will land on the anti-saturn side of Titan)

#19 Re: Unmanned probes » Beagle II - inquiry » 2004-11-05 12:11:24

who's going to pay for it, that's the question

#20 Re: Unmanned probes » Neptune Orbiter with Probes - ...part of NASA's "Vision Missions" » 2004-11-02 12:35:07

..though I suspect slowing down enough to land is the main problem here....

#21 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens *2* - ...more Saturn/Titan... » 2004-10-30 13:55:18

flammable...the whole planet is flammable. It's the oxygen that's lacking!

#23 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens *2* - ...more Saturn/Titan... » 2004-10-25 11:37:04

looks like clouds alright looks like the same clouds as from the previous flyby...so that side must be the south pole. is that right? the saturn pictures are also tilted, so I guess so.

Methane oceans? who knows? we will find out soon I guess. Could be some hydrocarbon sludge though...or ... hmmm...something interesting.

Good to be back. I was on holiday and moving to England. so was internet-less for a while

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