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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."

4 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

  2. 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..

  3. 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.

  4. 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.