Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Rocket Science

Mars Spirit Rover Struggles Toward McCool Hill

Both Mars rovers have far exceeded their “warranty” and despite setbacks from time to time, have bounced back to carry on with their extended missions. The Spirit rover is currently limping (backwards, on five out of six wheels) toward it’s winter resting place atop a hill named “McCool.”

From Jet Propulsion Labs:

Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The Mission

Spirit Continues Driving on Five Wheels:

Spirit continued to make progress toward “McCool Hill” despite a reduction in solar energy and problems with the right front wheel. The team plans to have the rover spend the winter on the hill’s north-facing slopes, where the tilt toward the sun would help maximize daily output by the solar panels. On Spirit’s 779th sol, or Martian day (March 13, 2006), the drive actuator on the right front wheel stalled during a turn to adjust the position of the rover’s antennas. The stall ended the day’s drive, which brought Spirit 29 meters (95 feet) closer to McCool, still approximately 120 meters (390 feet) away.

Engineers conducted tests on sols 781 and 782 (March 15 and 16, 2006) on a testbed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as remotely on Spirit. Further analysis is needed to determine what caused the right front actuator to stop working. Meanwhile, the operations team has successfully commanded Spirit to drive using only 5 wheels. Engineers plan to have Spirit continue driving backward with five healthy wheels while dragging the right front wheel.

17 Mar 2006 by Aerospace Astronomy Rocket Science

Planet Mercury in the Twilight

If you step out this evening or or tomorrow evening, you might catch a glimpse of the seldom-seen planet – Mercury. Known as the Incredible Shrinking Planet, Mercury is about to slip back out of sight as it disappears behind the Sun until it emerges later this year.

Right: Mercury over the Rockies as seen from Denver – Credit: Jeffrey Beall.

Meanwhile, a little known NASA mission – MESSENGER – got a boost from it’s thrusters to place it on trajectory for another gravity-assisted sling around planet Venus toward it’s ultimate goal of orbiting the closest planet to the sun.

New Scientist has some information about NASA’s MESSENGER mission:

Messenger probe nudged towards Venus flyby

NASA’s first mission to Mercury in more than 30 years completed its final trajectory correction manoeuvre on Wednesday before a flyby of Venus in October 2006.

Messenger – short for Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging – is on a 7.9 billion kilometre path to becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

Note: words in the New Scientist article are spelled correctly – at least in the UK where the magazine is based.

24 Feb 2006 by Astronomy Rocket Science

SuitSat Batt Flat

I told you this was a Russian brainfart. From SpaceWeather.com

SUITSAT IS SILENT: Space is cold–apparently too cold for SuitSat’s batteries. The Earth-orbiting spacesuit stopped transmitting shortly after it was thrown overboard from the International Space Station on Feb. 3rd. Probable cause: lack of power.

Right: SuitSat floats away from the International Space Station on Feb. 3rd.

This doesn’t mean that SuitSat was a failure. The experimental satellite was “launched” to answer questions such as “Can a spacesuit-satellite function without internal temperature controls?” The answer, apparently, is no. Next-generation SuitSats will take this into account.

SuitSat will continue to orbit Earth for weeks, spiraling slowly into the atmosphere. Stay tuned for information about seeing SuitSat in the night sky.

04 Feb 2006 by Aerospace Rocket Science

Moondust and Gunpowder?

This is from the third installment of Science@NASA’s Apollo Chronicles.

NASA – Apollo Chronicles: The Smell of Moondust

January 30, 2006: Moondust. “I wish I could send you some,” says Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. Just a thimbleful scooped fresh off the lunar surface. “It’s amazing stuff.”

Feel it—it’s soft like snow, yet strangely abrasive.

Taste it—”not half bad,” according to Apollo 16 astronaut John Young.

Sniff it—”it smells like spent gunpowder,” says Cernan.

How do you sniff moondust?

Right: At the end of a long day on the moon, Apollo 17 astronaut Gene cernan rests inside the lunar module Challenger. Note the smudges of dust on his longjohns and forehead. Photo credit: Jack Schmitt.

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02 Feb 2006 by Aerospace Rocket Science

SuitSat

This is just plain weird science.

NASA – SuitSat

January 26, 2006: One of the strangest satellites in the history of the space age is about to go into orbit. Launch date: Feb. 3rd. That’s when astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will hurl an empty spacesuit overboard.

The spacesuit is the satellite — “SuitSat” for short.

“SuitSat is a Russian brainstorm,” explains Frank Bauer of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Some of our Russian partners in the ISS program, mainly a group led by Sergey Samburov, had an idea: Maybe we can turn old spacesuits into useful satellites.” SuitSat is a first test of that idea.

Image: ISS astronaut Mike Finke spacewalks in a Russian Orlan spacesuit in 2004. SuitSat will have no one inside.

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This must be the Russians’ idea of a publicity stunt. I liked the space lottery idea better.

Russian brainstorm – bah – brainfart is more like it.

See suitsat.org for pass times and details if you’re into this.

27 Jan 2006 by Aerospace Rocket Science

Space Lottery

Lottery: a tax on mathematically-challenged people.

I found this concept to be interesting. From SPACE.com:

A Space Lottery: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

I suggest a National Space Lottery as a new way of funding space flight systems, promoting space tourism and paying for the tickets of those who would fly. Many have spoken of our goals in space, but few offer ways to pay for them. The following proposal offers a possible solution.

The National Space Society should promote creation of a National Space Lottery. Ideally, this might become an International Space Lottery, and would offer the possibility of space flight, as a prize, to every man, woman and child on earth.

A Space Lottery would generate enormous worldwide publicity, a new fascination with space. Prizewinners would be followed like those of modern “Reality TV” shows. An International Space Lottery would be ideal. People all over the world, rich and poor, would share in the possibility of a ride into space. Space tourism could soon become a reality. Men, women and children everywhere sense that the destiny of humanity is elsewhere, and want to be part of the dream.

23 Jan 2006 by Aerospace Culture Rocket Science

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