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Chopper Pilots Train to Catch Space Probe
mav[LAG] writes "Hollywood helicopter pilots have been training for a unique catch planned for September: they will hopefully snag in midair the parachute of a capsule dropped by the Genesis project before it touches down in the Utah desert. The capsule will contain collector arrays of solar particles that should, er, shed some light on the origins of the solar system."
Here is another article (along with a huge picture!) at the official JPL NASA website.
http://almostsmart.com
... but it seems like putting a little more engineering into the thing to make a softer ground landing would have been easier, and safer, than relying on this bizarre mid-air catch. The article says it will probably survive the landing even if the pilot misses; how much extra material would have been required to soften the landing enough for them to be sure?
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Back in the early days of spy satelites this was common practice. After a spy sat finished a roll of film it would be ejected and caught somewhere over the Pacific by a Navy pilot. IIRC they used planes and not chopers.
Thoughts on tech, Software Engineering, and stuff
The stakes are high, because if the probe touches down it will destroy all life on Earth before reterraforming the planet.
For great justice.
Why is this hard?
i es/categ ory_satellites.htm
I understand that the early spy satellites did not have CCD's, but only Cameras, and they'd drop the Films to earth (reentry and all) and those would be caught in flight by a modified plane, developed and looked at.
That was with Slide Rules and stuff, no serious computers then, and no helicopters, I think. Why is it hard today?
Quote: "A special feature of the Discoverer Program was that the satellites were to eject capsules after a certain number of orbits. The capsule was supposed to reenter the atmosphere and release a parachute so that the capsule could be recovered. Specially modified aircraft were fitted with two long booms which extended from the aircraft and had a rope stretched between the tips of the booms. If everything went according to plan, the rope would catch the shrouds of the parachute of the de-orbited capsule."
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The hardest part of this is building the track REALLY FAST when you find out where the probe is going to land, so you can make sure that the train is there to catch it.
1. Because all the military pilots capable of doing this are tied up elsewhere?
2. Because military pilots aren't trained to do crazy-ass stunt-type flying?
3. Liability issues?
4. PR?
5. Because stunt pilots log more flying hours than military pilots and are therefore slightly better trained?
6. Because no military pilot is stupid enough to do something like this?
Pick one. Or pull it out of your butt like I did. Personally, I think #2 is probably a good reason.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
- mid-air catch is a proven, reasonable technique
- putting more engineering into the thing would make it heavier, less reliable, and more expensive to launch.
we have uh-oh.
NASA has used an airplane to snag sounding rocket payloads on descent for years. Affectionately named the "Happy Hooker" because that's just what it did, latched a big hook onto the parachute.
As part of a university program that launched a joint venture sounding rocket from Wallops Island, this wasn't an available option for us. We constructed the payload to be watertight and boyant, and hired a tuna-boat to go out and pick the thing out of the Atlantic.
*cheers* to all SPIRIT teammates if they happen to read this. It was an outstanding success.
you know, engineering is not always about what you do, its about what you don't do.
... blah blah blah ... &etc.
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remember that this particular object will have to have:
a) survived construction on earth
b) survived launch and liftoff, and subsequent separations of other stages of the vehicle,
c) gotten itself into the specific flightpaths and orbits and such that required it to complete its mission
d) stay in touch with earth
e) complete its mission
f) get back
and you want to add just 'a little more engineering' to it, to make it easier for it to land on the ground.
where, inevitably, the chances of the contents of the collector, a substance we know little about (yet), being dispersed to the winds of earth as a result of collision, will be much higher
personally, i'd have preferred they put the engineering lab doing the analysis of this material in space, where it belongs and not bothered bringing stuff into the atmosphere
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --