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Stardust Apparently Successful
Naomi_the_butterfly writes "The Stardust mission, a craft launched in February 1999, just concluded its encounter with comet Wild 2 at 11:40:35 am PST. The encounter went without a hitch, with about 72 images taken and comet coma (tail) dust collected! The first images will be downloaded to JPL over between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, in time for a press conference at 3:00 pm PST. Today a comet, tomorrow Mars!" Space.com has a picture taken by the spacecraft.
Oops, I was going to use that line when we landed on Mars.
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/
They spent HOW much to only get THAT little bit of TAIL?
first time any samples have been brought back from beyond the moons orbit...
Landing a probe on Mars is easy. getting it to communicate after it's done so is not so easy.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Images of dust? ... Sooo, how is that different from what we got off CNN in April?
What is innovative? They are returning samples to Earth, the first time any automated probe has done that and the only material gathered direct from the source since the Moon landings!
I think I just bit on a troll...
Probably that it's gone out, darted around the solar system, wandered into the path of the comet, nabbed some dust in aerogel... just some good solid engineering success there.
The thing is coming BACK in 2 years, though. That seems to be the big feature.
Doesn't seem like looking for ice on the moon is comparible to seeing what matter is present in a comet's tail...
To protect Stardust against the blast of expected cometary particles and rocks, the spacecraft rotated so it was flying in the shadow of its "Whipple Shields"
Please don't squeeze the Charmin!
I dont remember reading about a mission that collected commet dust....
This mission has almost nothing to do with propulsion you twit.
It is merely a means to an end.
The point was to collect some physical material from a comet and see what we can learn from it. Which could be a whole lot, or very little.
Ah, so the only thing of importance is what propulsion system it uses? This the first sample return mission attempted that has a target other than the moon. It is quite innovative.
The items you list have either not gone past earth's orbit, or have done so never to return, only sending information back.
This one is physically coming back, bringing comet material back to earth.
Maybe it's viruses or something, or weird alien spores that'll take over the planet, or maybe it's just some dirt and muck from a filthy iceball. Whatever it is, it's coming back here in January 2006. First Time Ever
Sorry but I do think that these days, anything related to "space" and "success" is slashdot worthy ;-)
Images of the enounter may be found here along with live updated status reports here. Looking closely at the overexposed image on the bottom of the first page you can actually make out vapor jets emanating from the surface of Wild produced by the vaporizing ice and dust heated by the sun.
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
Regardless of politics, posting this here is nothing more than spam. Some of us are lefties, but all of us hate spam.
Hello Andromeda Strain!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
why use video when you can use......
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/040102a.gif
ANIMATED GIFS!
seriously thats like the longest one ive ever seen. i could only get as far as the guy in the blue shirt and the old people in congress.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Ummm. . . Maybe they should land in New York instead? No, if you're not familiar with Utah, S. Utah, and S/W Utah is just pretty barren desert, the military has a weapons range on the West side of Utah (central all the way down to southern Utah). And it would make for excellent location to land/crashland a device, and who knows, if it has some crazy funky radiation, people would be a little bit safe, considering that it is a barren military weapon bombing spot.
YOU'RE WINNER !
Another lame blog
Perhaps you are thinking of the SMART-1 mission?
(that pic of the comet looks suspiciously like the comet from the star trek intro!... :)
--
Power to the Peaceful
Didn't the Russians bring back some stuff from the moon with an unmanned spacecraft back in 1970? Can't remember if it was automated.
What?
Apparently? It returned pictures, but was only apparently successful?
Are we suggesting that the Stardust mission was faked, like the moon landing?
Shocking. Will the lies never stop? Even more damning evidence found here.
philcrissman.com.
Here's a CNN article that describes the substance that NASA is using to capture samples from the comet's tail.
"There is no spoon." - The Matrix
It's kewl.
Have a look:
Approximated 3D stereoscopic view of the comet
The fact that the comet was photographed from two slightly different angles makes it possible to create a stereoscopic view of the object. I enhanced the left-hand image a little bit to help bring out the depth of the object. The original image is way too washed out to make it a good fit.
In order to view it, sit squarely infront of your monitor at a distance of a few feet, cross your eyes gently, and try to merge both sides of the images into a "single image" in the center. If you're having trouble, try using the two red birds as a visual guide. Once the birds overlap, the rest of the picture will as well.
Ahhhh, I love stereoscopy.
Bowie J. Poag
No sig, sorry.
I, for one, welcome our new Stardust overlords.
err.....right
A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
It's big news because like someone else said, they're the first samples we've ever gotten that didn't come from the moon, and aren't inter-planetary dust particles. Plus, they're actually -returned- to earth, and not just measured/observed like all the other previous satelites have done. Wild 2 is presumed to be composed of the same substances that were present at the begining of the universe, and will contribute to a better understanding of how everything was back then. Since it's mostly just a dirty snowball floating in space, it's presumed to have been relatively unchanged for billions of years. The scientists will go wild over actual samples of particles that are this old.
What's also cool, is that the same stunt helicopter guys that they used in the matrix will be the ones that snag the returning samples's capsule/heatshield out of the air over utah.
My dad is the V.P. of Civil Space at lockheed martin (this project was under his management), so the family and I got to go and watch the final approach and the turning of the satelite (not that we could see anything other than people at workstations at JPL and Waterton) and see the first images. It was kinda neat to see all the scientists at JPL get excited that they were receiving data. And cooler to see the engineers here in Denver breathe a sigh of relief that it worked, and that it didn't get nailed by a rock going 36,000 miles an hour.
Very unfunny and unoriginal, jackass.
.... but will they be able to bring it back to earth? I know that the mars missions have not been allowed to bring back any samples for fear of contaminating the earth with foreign "stuff"
To heck with the thought that our spaceships and satellites might be contaminating other planets, I suppose
The probe was able to take 72 pictures, but they are still in the process of receiving those pictures since they aren't sent here in real time.
Actually, scientists do seem to care about that. There was worry that the Galileo spacecraft might contaminate Europa, which may have life, so it was crashed into Jupiter, which doesn't.
Bít, zabít, jen proto, ze su liska!
That's one thing I love about the space stories here - cuz stuff like this has *got* to be the ultimate hack IMHO.
C|N>K
just wanted to say a quick congrats to all the hard working people at nasa. keep up the good work.
The linux hacker
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy day
For love may come and tap you on the shoulder
some starless night
Just in case you feel you want to hold her
You'll have a pocketful of starlight
(Okay, so it's comet dust, not a falling star/meteorite. [ObHomer] Stupid geeks, be more romantic!)
Just for safety I hope NASA has a clean room containing an old drunk and a crying baby. They'll be our only hope if there's any space-born virus brought back!
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
There seems to be a lot of celebrating just for catching the dust.
Two years before its returned to Earth, if everything goes as planned. THEN I'll chear.
For now, just a tepid thumbs up.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
You question 'coma' but not the word 'comet' itself?
Comet comes from the Greek 'kometes' which means 'the hairy one' (according to Google). So naturally they used 'coma' to describe the 'hair'.
I don't think Aerogel has been used to collect comet dust before. Or maybe you know different?
A face! I see a face!
Call the National Enquirer !
I find it quite funny, since they could easily have it backwards. We know nothing about what conditions it takes to make life, only what conditions Earth had.
You're forgetting one key fact-
There are no Martians on comets, so there was no one to shoot this one down.
Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.
I can't wait to see these pictures. It was getting time to change wallpaper anyway, this looks like they will do just fine
This space intentionally left blank.
You'd think anything with a name like WILD2 would have a tail made of empty beer cans.
> Read how radiation should have turned the Astro-nots into crispy space bacon.
Hmmm bacon......
There was worry that the Galileo spacecraft might contaminate Europa, which may have life, so it was crashed into Jupiter, which doesn't. ...that we know of.
"We will finally be able to analyis real space objects" hundreds of meteorites reach the earths surface every year. aren't these real space objects?
Who did space.com pay to put the caption right in the URL?!
g _d isplay.php?pic=h_wild2-comet_02.jpg&cap=Your%20Bal ls%20Are%20Filthy%20---%20Go%20Wash%20Them%20Beavi s
I like this caption to the WILD2 photo over the original:
http://space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/im
------------------------------
Ray Raspberry
raspberry@b3l33t.org
There is a Mars sample return mission getting ready. They haven't done it yet because it's HARD.
... any more.
Shit better not happen!
I'm also looking forward to Deep Impact, a mission in which a NASA probe will shoot a large copper projectile into a comet, and observe the various ejecta that result.
Just take a few extra moments, if you haven't already, to really look at the image, and realize this is one of the objects of wonderment that has been gazed upon by our ancestors, all the way back to the beginning of our history. And now it's right there in a close-up photo.
It really is amazing that we can not only see what that old thing really looks like, but also get to check out the stuff it's made from when the spacecraft gets back here in a couple of years.
Truly awesome.
http://www.mobileasses.com/display.php
And what rating will it get?
The Russians brought back samples from the moon 3 times between 1970 and 1976 (and, um, how could it have been anything BUT automated?). The first was the Luna 16 mission: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog? sc=1970-072A
Take a look here:
http://www.blogjam.com/neil_armstrong/
It looks surprised to see the spacecraft.
o o
O
Aliens have left us a message in the image caption. Be afraid.
Yeah, I know...lame joke. *sigh*
and that it didn't get nailed by a rock going 36,000 miles an hour.
Like mars?? LOL
Maybe it's viruses or something, or weird alien spores that'll take over the planet
I heard they named the return vehicle "Andromeda".
"Thousands died while science looked to the stars."
Earthquakes don't happen in space.
that spacedust is costing a few hundred millions dollar for less than 0.1gram. Probably the most expensive dirt ever. I hope when it get back to Earth that someone didnt sneeze and blow off all the dust.
I think the ultimate space hack was the stuff they needed to do to get Apollo 13 home.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
(and, um, how could it have been anything BUT automated?).
The moon is close enough for remote control.
Earth is in space.
When will this industry ever learn?
g _d isplay.php?pic=h_wild2-comet_02.jpg&cap=<script>al ert('Dirty XSS Balls')</script>
http://space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/im
(Don't forget to delete the spaces)
Damn.
It all goes downhill from first post
"...that we know of."
dum dum dahhhhh!
Sorry, I pictured the music cueing and a quick snap-zoom to your concerned face as we fade to commercial... gave me the chills there.
Kip Hawley is an idiot.
What are you doing posting on /.? Get back to work on your cure for cancer, AIDS, and heart disease!
Why didn't you donate the money for your computer?
Too bad *you* weren't vacationing in Bam. Quit breathing, we need the oxygen.
Can anyone say Andromeda Strain?
I'm being serious. That's absolutely fucking amazing. How they know where the comet is going to be in space at a particular time and get another object going over 13,000 miles an hour to pass through its tail and snap pictures from a mere 200 miles away and all that by remote control when it takes an hour for instructions to get to the craft. Astounding. The shit we take for granted.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Ahhhh! My eyes!
after testing the sample scientists figure out how to make the comet more efficient by running Linux.
I was all set for a short John Carter fiction peice about the disappearance of Stardust.
So, of course, this is one probe that's successful!
Damnit! Sure, Stardust is worth the millions NASA spent, but I lost a few +1 Funny mod points!
for those of you who have never heard of it, google it. by far one of the more interesting things i learned from reading about this mission.
space is in your moms vagina
The comet image looks a lot like the comet in the intro to Deep Space Nine. (Coincidently, there's a banner ad for DS9 on DVD...)
"Derp de derp."
Has the comet been hacked yet?
How long before I can run Linux on the comet?
Can we turn the Ort Cloud into a Beowulf Cluster?
OMG! That would be soooooooooo kewl! *SCREAMS*
... and in the DRM, bind them.
The idea that the names of those fallen soldiers are mixing with stardust today, has been giving me a warm fuzzy feeling. :)
To correctly allocate resoucres is to know with 100% confidence the outcome of every possible allocation. How many people die of starvation while we try to solve aids? How many people die in car accidents when we try top solve cancer? Only with a godlike timeless perspective can you or anyone judgbe the allocation of resources and defintly state wheather we made good choices or bad. what if our investment in space technlology pays off big as we are able to divert an extinction causing comet from smashing into the planet.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Something which, of course, would immediately stop if we'd just abandon all pretenses to advancement and go back to the trees, I suppose.
Tens of thousands died in the industrialization process that got you probably just about everything in your home right now. I don't see you whining about how that wasn't worth it.
To create the conditions that bolstered the technologies that are allowing you to post this myopic, Luddite bullshit on Slashdot right now, nearly one hundred million people died in no fewer than three major wars.
What? From that mountaintop of a moral high ground you're preaching from, you couldn't see that?
Maybe, just maybe, you should save your attempts at profundity for an occaision where they don't reek of ignorance.
"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
Today a comet, tomorrow Mars!
Today, a space probe ran into a comet.
NASA has been sending space probes *into* Mars for quite a long time...
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Aaaaack! [space.com]
on another note, an article of mine got posted! woohoo!
There's a nice PDF link which gives some excellent background on the Stardust mission.
/.ers:
Some points of interest for
1) They use Aerogel to collect the dust for return
2) The Dust Analyzer was based on a design used for the ESA's Giotto probe
3) The navigation camera used was left-over from the Voyager mission of 1977, combined with a left-over sensor head from the Gallileo mission launched in 1989
4) The CPU is a hardened version of the Macintosh PowerPC chip, known as the RAD6000, which runs at between 5 and 20 MHz. It has 128 Mb of RAM, and 3 Mb of PROM.
5) The operating system uses only 20% of its RAM for its own use -- the rest is dedicated to experiments, including 75 Mb for images from the navigation camera
6) The radio transponder is a relict of the Cassini mission to Saturn
Follow the first link for lots more nice tech details.
Paul Gillingwater
MBA, CISSP, CISM
im looking at this picture and thinking "wow, we flew a probe out in space, successfully caught up with this thing and took its picture"
then i look at the picture and think "well...its a rock, and its not even cool enough of a rock to use as a background" so im not sure how excited i am about all this
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. -- George Carlin
Launch vehicles and satellites have sophisticated telemetry systems that collect a wide variety of information from on-board sensors and systems. This information is often crucial in diagnosing faults and failures, since physical evidence is usually unavailable.
The problem is that there has to be a satellite tracking ground station, or special satellite with similar capabilities, with a line-of-sight to the probe to receive and record the telemetry for later analysis.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I agree. That was a pure off-the-cuff hack.
But all these recent Mars missions and cometary excursions are great nerd stuff.
Until now, I did not know it was possible to get an eye cramp. :-o
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
and all I could think was, "That's Wild!"
It's funny 'cause it's true.
People keep telling me there is a sailboat in the picture...
"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
Sure, but what will be said when we discover that this meteor is actually a frozen chunk of fecal matter dumped from a passing Alien Cruise Ship?
-- No matter how great your triumphs or how tragic your defeats, approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less.
...they'll lose contact with the capsule as it aerobrakes into Utah, never to regain it.
Later, traces of it will be found in the UnixWare source (well, hey, the supporting documentation they've filed doesn't leave much else out), and D'ohl will start charging people USD$1500 a grain for the use of his dust.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
...discovers DNA similar to D'ohl MacBarratry's"?
That's the headlines, anyway. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I side with Z, except on the point of NASA's efficiency. NASA's middle name is "Efficiency", but sadly their first name is "Lacks".
Giving mankind any firm target for research is a win, because otherwise we'd never get off our collective asses to achieve anything that didn't produce an immediate profit. Welcome to Human Nature 101.
If you take an Atheistic viewpoint, that would be bad because the first sizeable rock to come and kiss us means the end of all sapient life on Earth. If you take a concensus religious point of view, that would be bad because we're failing to live up to our responsiblities (to housekeep Gaia, or manage God's little preserve for us, or whatever).
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
And now, with the mars lander apparently dead....
sig not found
Ack, I hardly meant to imply NASA was some sort of efficient thing, short of their early days. I know the NASA lately has had all the efficiency of.. uh.. something that really, really doesn't have much of it.
I've had something of an opinion for awhile that we tend to slip into periods of stagnation when the cynicism valve gets clogged up and people start focusing on the fact that everything sucks, rather than making any pretenses to dreaming. The past ten years or so has been a particularly bad one of those, and with the death knell for American manned spaceflight this past February it's gone up quite a bit.
People need to realize that what's been done in space so far is far from the limit. The problem is getting past that cynicism; people with any kind of vision are labelled as crackpots not worthy of notice just because they come up with something new or moderately difficult. Add onto that the "but but but TERRORISM!" fear these days, and you get a culture that's not in the mood to do a whole hell of a lot. :P
Really though, we're gonna be around for a lot longer than the next fifty years or so (I hope), but our stake here isn't permenant. People have this apres moi, le deluge mindset that's sorely limiting, and are rejecting the idea that they have any sort of obligation or responsibility to future generations. I'm inclined to think they do, and I'll gladly accept whatever variant of "leftist dumbass" people are going to throw at me for daring to think that.
We've got to get some presence off this rock if just for the sake of the species as a whole, because right now our eggs are all in one basket. I'm not dumb enough to think it's just a matter of saying "Okay, let's do it" and hurling millions of people out into the great beyond, but it's hardly the insurmountable task people believe it to be. The problem is that initial, admittedly huge investment. It will take a lot of time, money, and yes, even lives, to get something out of space programs, but the moment you stop thinking in terms of the next fiscal year and start thinking in terms of your grandchildren it becomes a lot more worthwhile. Once people actually start doing something Up There beyond probes and the ISS boondoggle, opportunities in just about every scientific field, coupled with industrial or power-generation possibilities, will more than pay us back for our efforts, making that initial investment seem paltry by comparison.
It's one of those things that's worth it if people can get the will to admit that very true fact.
"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
Whaddaya know... Stardust returns to Earth on my birthday. I guess I'll be able to wish on a (falling) star for sure that day.
Shutting them down just once would probably be enough. But there would inevitably be a replacement - would it be better or worse than what we have? Why?
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
At least one par in there sounded very... Pratchett. Nice speech. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
... if they had included Vietnamese people's names as well.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.