Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Japanese 'Minerva' Robot Lost in Space

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the danger-will-robinson dept.

space_weasel writes "A little Japanese robot that was supposed to land on the surface of an asteroid has accidentally been flung into space by its mothership. New Scientist Space reports that the accident occurred as the data link with the spacecraft was being switched from an station in Japan to one in Australia. Mission controllers still plan to punch a hole in the asteroid and collect samples, which will be returned to Earth."

4 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. huh by Lindz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    'Still, he admits that mission controllers do not fully understand how to deal with the spacecraft's motion after the periodic thruster firings' Then why are they mission controllers????

  2. Read a bit earlier -- this was already a kludge by ianscot · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "But this "dress rehearsal" was cut short because mission controllers could not accurately guide the spacecraft using its fuel thrusters - a contingency solution devised following the failure of two of the craft's three stabilising reaction wheels."

    This was a series of truly bad rolls of the dice. Two of their three stablizers failed, they had bad altimeter data because "the slope of the asteroid's surface had apparently caused the altimeter to misjudge... estimates of the craft's altitude," and then they got below 100 meters while the antenna switchover was happening. They sent the separate command without realizing the thrusters to maintain minimum altitude had just fired, because of that break in communications. So the article says, though it's not a sterling example of great science writing, I'll give you that.

    The "mission officials are saying "Our readiness was not so complete," to their credit, but it's not like they're complete incompetents. More like they're pushing the technology: the altimeter hadn't ever been used before, for the obvious example.

    Sort of fits the cheaper/faster model of robotic exploration. You have your hits and your misses. This isn't a Cassini Cadillac of a probe.

    --
    "Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
  3. Common problem? by Bombula · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It seems like motors, solar panels and stabilizers are always the thing that fail on spacecraft. Seriously, it's the sort plot device Star Trek episodes are criticized for - "Captain, the left stabilizer is failing - I can't balance the phase inducers!"

    Is there some reason why we can't make these things tougher or more redundant?

    --
    A-Bomb
  4. Re:Not to go off on a rant... by drsquare · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Other than inches in feet, what else in the imperial system uses 12? There are 16 ounces in an inch, three feet in a yard, 8 furlongs in a mile, 14 pounds in a stone, 8 stone in a hundredweight. I'm not seeing many 12s there.

    12 is a number that can be divided by 2, 3, 4, and their multiples very easily, and still end up in integer units again without equipment. The decimal metric system gets icky when you try to divide anything by anything except 5 and 2.

    You can't divide 12 by 5 and get a whole number either. You can divice by four just as easily in metric as you can in imperial. For example, 8 cm divided by 4 = 2 cm. Whereas 6 inches divided by four goes into decimal places. Luckily most measuring units have decimal places so it's a non issue.

    Maybe you live in some world where you often need to work out what a third or a quarter of a foot is without using any measuring instruments that show anything smaller than an inch. Maybe you need a new ruler.