One Last mission For Deep Space 1

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One Last mission For Deep Space 1

Posted by timothy on Monday September 10, 2001 @08:11PM from the do-it-for-the-gipper dept.

Vertigo01 writes: "Looks like NASA has found a fitting end for Deep Space 1, they're going to fly her THROUGH the coma of a comet to try and take some pictures of the comet's core ... the kicker is that they're doing it with barely any fuel left, and a kludged-together science-camera to replace the toasted navigation system ... kind of a fitting end for her IMO."

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Re:$12 million by FTL · 2001-09-10 22:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

> Where has it gone? $1000 floppy disks? 50 person full-time ground crew?
In order to communicate the probe you need to rent time on the Deep Space Network. This network is currently running at capacity, so getting time on it is rather expensive.
But an even bigger expense is the mission software. Modifications to the programming of the probe need to be codded. Then the code has to be proved to be mathematically perfect. You cannot afford to compile it, upload it, and get a message back saying "stack overflow, press any key to continue". The software must be proven to be 100% bug free before it goes up.
It takes a lot of people to manage a space mission correctly. Cut corners, and your mission fails because of something stupid (e.g. metric vs imperial).

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Re:Scientific value? by GTRacer · 2001-09-11 02:51 · Score: 4, Insightful

Ugh...
The point of the Deep Space series of missions, of which the Mars Polar Lander was #2 and went AWOL, was to test new tech for next to nothing (in NASA terms).
Do any of you realise that DS1, apart from being 8 revs away from the greatest Trek ever, was powered by an ion engine? You know, like Star Wars?
Plus, when the nav system went tits up, they were able to retask other optical instruments to allow for autonomous piloting.
DS1 wasn't even supposed to make it this far. IIRC, it was expected to have a 3-month primary mission to test the equipment. Then, if there was enough gas in the tank and the thing still worked, they were going to find something else for it.
An asteroid flyby and now a comet encounter...not bad for $12 mil!
P.S. I'm a bit biased on this one - I watched the launch and have read every one of the oddball logs posted by Dr. Raymond.
C'mon, NASA, where's DS3?
GTRacer
- Wants to be first at something

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