NASA Prepares The SIRTF For Launch

Anonymous Coward writes "NASA is ready to button up the SIRTF (Space Infrared Telescope Facility) probe for launch. The panorama is of the clean room at Hangar AE on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as the SIRTF team makes final adjustments."

Comments

Details

[barakn]

would have been nice. When's the launch window?

Nice panorama app ... one question:

[torpor]

Anyone know why there's an overhead geographical map being used to display eyeport orientation on the panorama app?

Seems sort of odd to me... but maybe they're re-using some codebase for which an overhead geo map was appropriate - say, for an outside panorama shot?

I have to say, that looks like one nice piece of hardware, though its hard to get a feeling for its construction from far back. One thing I've always been impressed with is just how much junk there always appears to be on the outside of satellites and such ...

I guess there's no point making it aesthetic (i.e. with smooth panels and such) given the conditions of launch (cost per pound) and the fact that once it's up, nobody is going to see it ever again... well, except for those with the shiny spacesuits and the grey skin and the pointy bits around their head, that is ...

Re:Nice panorama app ... one question:

[Anonymous Coward]

Channel 12 of Kennedy Space Center has this same webcam on continuously

http://www.astrobio.net/news/media.php

NASA is the only government agency with their own TV station

I work for SIRTF. . .

[astrobabe]

Our Launch date is currently April 18th at something like 4:30 EDT. It was April 15th at the same time but a military satellite took higher precedence over us and was launched last Friday.

Our nominal launch window is April 15th through about May 9th. The next things to get launched are the Mars probes. We're supposed to be the "test" case of the Delta II Heavy for the Mars probes but it'll be a little too late to change things for them if we have rocket problems.

Our webpage is http://sirtf.caltech.edu for the general public and http://sirtf.caltech.edu/SSC for the scientists.

We're pretty small- 80 cm in diameter. We can essentially fit the whole space craft assembly in the telescope tube for Hubble. We have three instruments- 2 cameras and a spectrograph. IRAC is the InfraRed Array Camera and observes at 3.6,4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The other imager, MIPS, the Mid Infrared Photometer for SIRTF observes at 24, 50 and 160 microns. It can also do "rough" spectroscopy in Spectral Energy Distribution Mode but we don't anticipate making that available until about the 2nd year. The Spectrograph is named IRS (InfraRed Spectrograph) and observes from 5 to 40 microns. Our required mission life time is about 2.5 years but we anticipate that we will be operating for over 5 years (it is directly dependent on how much cryogen we have). After we run out of cryogen we can still operate IRAC but MIPS and IRS will have problems because of the warmth of the telescope. Oh and one last detail- we're in an earth trailing orbit so unlike Hubble we can't send people up to fix things or install new instruments.

Hmmm...

[rice_web]

EXCEPTION: java.lang.NullPointerException: name

It looks like they're off to a great start.

Re:Hmmm...

[K3lvin]

>EXCEPTION: java.lang.NullPointerException: name

Update your JRE

Re:Hmmm...

[JediTrainer]

Update your JRE [sun.com]

To what, exactly? I get the same error. My console says:

Java(TM) Plug-in: Version 1.4.1_02
Using JRE version 1.4.1_02 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM

Re:Hmmm...

[K3lvin]

To what, exactly? I get the same error. My console says:

Java(TM) Plug-in: Version 1.4.1_02
Using JRE version 1.4.1_02 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM


Interesting, I have 1.4.1_01. Maybe you should downgrade then :)

SIRTF

[barakn]

The launch of the last of the 4 "Great Observatories," already greatly delayed, has been bumped back by a military satellite and is being used to test a rocket? Sounds like messed up priorities to me. I have been impatiently waiting for images of "the old, the cold, and the dirty."

Less than impressed...

[JediTrainer]

Here's what I get in my Java console when launching the applet in Mozilla:

APPLET tag missing CODE parameter.

java.lang.NullPointerException: name
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.getResourceAsStream(A ppletClassLoader.java:322)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel$2.run(AppletPanel.java:575)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(AppletPanel.ja va:571)
at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(AppletViewer. java:1778)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(AppletPanel.java: 496)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(AppletPanel.java:293)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)

APPLET tag missing CODE parameter.

java.lang.NullPointerException: name

at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.getResourceAsStream(A ppletClassLoader.java:322)

at sun.applet.AppletPanel$2.run(AppletPanel.java:575)

at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(AppletPanel.ja va:571)

at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(AppletViewer. java:1778)

at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(AppletPanel.java: 496)

at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(AppletPanel.java:293)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)

load: class cpad.class not found.

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: cpad.class

at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(AppletClass Loader.java:153)

at sun.plugin.security.PluginClassLoader.findClass(Pl uginClassLoader.java:168)

at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:2 99)

at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(AppletClass Loader.java:114)

at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:2 55)

at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadCode(AppletClassL oader.java:506)

at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(AppletPanel.ja va:567)

at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(AppletViewer. java:1778)

at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(AppletPanel.java: 496)

at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(AppletPanel.java:293)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)

Caused by: java.io.IOException: open HTTP connection failed.

at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.getBytes(AppletClassL oader.java:252)

at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.access$100(AppletClas sLoader.java:42)

at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader$1.run(AppletClassLoad er.java:143)

at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(AppletClass Loader.java:140) ... 10 more

NASA may have cause of Columbia Accident

[chuckpeters]

I submitted this story, but someone didn't think it was worth slashdot, it just happens to be the biggest story StarrySkies has had an early sccop on... It should have been posted!

Information retreived from Columbia's Flight Data Recorder coupled with CAT scan images of shuttle Atlantis' leading wing's RCC panels may provide the answers to what happened to Columbia. Early results from the flight data recorder indicate structural damage to Columbia much earlier than perviously thought, even before re-entry. Also, CAT scans of the reinforced carbon carbon panels from the wing's leading edges off Atlantis, show minute gaps in the layers. These gaps could allow superheated gases to enter into Columbia's wing. If all the data proves correct, Columbia was likely doomed before ever reaching the launch pad.

http://starryskies.com/articles/2003/03/columbia.h tml

Why they're ugly

[OmniGeek]

I guess there's no point making it aesthetic (i.e. with smooth panels and such) given the conditions of launch (cost per pound) and the fact that once it's up, nobody is going to see it ever again...

Aside from a total lack of aesthetic sensibility on all space instruments except ours, the outsides get all fiddly primarily for reasons of thermal control. Space environment is cold, mainly 'cause all your heat radiates away and there's nothing but the Sun to radiate back at you. Every external surface except instrument aperatures and antennas gets covered with thermal blankets (several layers of metallized plastic with plastic mesh spacers between) to reduce heat loss, or sometimes with mirrors (!) to radiate heat where one needs to lose it. It's a strange business...

Re:Why they're ugly

[torpor]

Aside from a total lack of aesthetic sensibility on all space instruments except ours

By 'ours', do you mean a particular company, or some nation?

I always thought the early Russian satellites and whatnot were particularly interesting-looking. Some of them are just downright funky, but that could just be because my 'fashion' sense has been honed so far from any CCCP-era style sensibilities that I only think its cool because ... once ... it wasn't.

Still. My sat's gonna look bitchin'. Whenever I get around to designing it, that is ... ;)