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DART Succumbs to Fuel Problems
qw0ntum writes "The AP reports that NASA's experimental DART (Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology) spacecraft mission ended early when the craft's onboard computers detected a fuel-system problem. The craft, which was entirely computer-controlled, came within 300 feet of its target rendezvous target, a Pentagon satelite, before detecting the problem. Despite the failure, mission leaders 'called the mission a partial success because it demonstrated that an entirely computer-controlled craft could find a satellite in space.'"
They really should, in space rendevous is going to be a very important technology in the future, especially when the CEV needs to be assembled in orbit for a trip to the moon or mars, much easier to have it autonomously done.
And this time, launch the thing off of a Falcon 1, not a $30million pegasus.
This partial failure is to show that it is not an easy stuff to launch a satellite and let it autonomously dock itself to another object.
Imagine doing something similiar with the Hubble. Though it'd not be totally autonomous, many things could go wrong in the repair/deorbit mission, which can lead to a disaster. This is why, I think that, at the end the Hubble would be serviced by astronauts to prepare its deorbit.
"When we started doing precise maneuvers, we started seeing excessive propellant consumption," Snoddy said. "The mission as designed, when it runs out of gas, completes itself."
There were some navigation errors but no indication of a fuel leak, he said in a conference call. A NASA investigation board will search for the cause of the problem.
Now when it turns out that the fuel system was reporting litres consumed per hour and the central system was thinking gallons per hour, is NASA going to give up on using English units? "472 miles above Earth"? "300 feet of the satellite"? Wankers.
I sure wish I had a job like that, where I could screw up in breaktaking magnitude and not have to answer for it to anybody.
Perhaps if your job was as complex as building rockets and satellites, you would understand. When there is a failure, there are inquiries lasting months to determine what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening in the future. When you screw up, someone has to take the unwanted pickles off of their hamburger.