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One Last mission For Deep Space 1

Posted by timothy on 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."

10 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Scientific value? by shd99004 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I wonder how much scientific value will come out of this, compared to the cost of $12 million. I mean, they say they have to almost make a guess on where to point the camera and to set the exposure. They could have used those bucks on other space crafts or missions, perhaps. But then again, $12 million is not a lot in this business.

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    1. Re:Scientific value? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Money and ethics are irrelevant when the physics is this tempting. This applied to the scientists working on the a-bomb and still applies today.

    2. Re:Scientific value? by CaptainAlbert · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm sure there are plenty of ways to justify the $12m bill - the ground operation will already be fairly immense, and keeping it running costs money (admin staff, office space, hefty electricity bills etc). Mainly, I expect it goes to consultants and contractors, and on purchasing hardware from "military approved" vendors (i.e. the expensive ones).

      In this country (UK), a post-doctoral space scientist at a top academic institution probably earns around 20,000 pounds PA if they're lucky (that's about $30,000, I think). If you consider that they'll be employed for maybe three years doing the data analysis and planning the next comet missions, a team of 20 scientists would account for $1.8m.

      So I can see (almost) where they get the figure from. And it's probably quite easy to convince the funding bodies (is that the US public? I don't know how NASA do things) that comets are already lining up to take aim at the Earth, and we must learn more about them so we can work out a defence mechanism... sounds insane, but that's how a lot of science gets funded nowadays.

      Me? I'd rather they built some hospitals in Africa.

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  2. Kudos to NASA by BrickM · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I mean, you've got to give them credit for refusing to throw in the towel. Ideally, things like Deep 1 wouldn't malfunction in the first place, but at least NASA is trying to make the most of things.

  3. Official NASA pages by Zarhan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/

    Check out the monthly reports. They are quite fun to read, because they are written in a "layman" fashion. Especially the parts where they are putting together the "using science camera for navigation"-kludge. And rebooting a system half a solar system away and hoping it comes up again after an OS upgrade.

    It's kinda sad that all the public focus is on the Mars missions, when there's stuff like DS1, Galileo, and NEAR that just keep on going..

  4. Re:$12 million to reprogram for this mission by Detritus · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It may be funny, but it is not true.

    The space pen's development was funded by a private company.

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  5. Already been done by morbid · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Back in about 1986 the ESA sent a probe called Giotto through the coma of Halley's Comet which sent back live video.

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  6. Re:I will miss it. by trumpetplayer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hi! I've just sent my baby for conformal coating today. It's the flight spare model of the power supply units to power the ccds of two cameras and it took me about 2 years to design completely (as a flight unit). The experiment is called Osiris, also here, the satellite is ESA's Rosetta and its target is some comet named Wirtanen. I'm quite happy to see my first piece of flight hardware already being integrated with the full satellite and hope the Osiris will give us some nice pictures one day.

    Cheers,


    Alejandro
    Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial - INTA

  7. Useful testcase by coreman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One of the important things to remember is that just like Apollo 13, these guys are where they are for coming up with innovative fixes to tough problems. This is just another great rehearsal for a situation that could just as easily come up with human life at stake. This is why these guys are kept on the project long after the system gets put into cruise mode. It's just another case of "I've done so much with so little for so long that now I'm attempting the impossible with nothing." You have to push the boundries to find where they are in practice. Also, real problems are far more challenging than anything they might have considered in simulation.

  8. Why fly downstream from the comet? by Mxyzptlk · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I was just wondering - why fly downstream from the comet and subjecting DS1 to the shower of particles, when you could approach it from upstream (put DS1 between the comet and the sun). The primary purpose is to get pictures of the nucleus, not the coma, right? So - let DS1 slowly drift towards the nucleus, and steer it by looking at the whole of the coma and centering on it (we know the nucleus is in the middle, because we've placed DS1 approximately in the middle between the sun and the coma). This allows as much time and small adjustments (saving fuel) as possible, getting DS1 as close to the nucleus as possible.

    When this is done, continue past the nucleus into the comp and try to get a closeup picture or two of the coma before being blown to smithereens by the particles.