Slashdot Mirror
NASA Astronomers To Observe Hayabusa's Fiery Homecoming
coondoggie writes "NASA said that a group of its astronomers will have a front row seat in Australia to watch the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa's high-speed, fiery return to Earth. It is bringing with it a hunk of the asteroid Itokawa. The spacecraft is expected to land in an unpopulated area of Australia at approximately midnight locally, or 7 am PDT, on Sunday, June 13. Some 30 NASA astronomers will be flying onboard a specially equipped DC-8 with instruments that can monitor Hayabusa's reentry."
He will become the ninja dragon!
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
JAXA is not at all certain that it is bringing a "hunk" or much at all of Itokawa back with it. The firing mechanism which was meant to fire a bullet into the asteroid malfunctioned. They're just hoping it picked up enough residue. After the various mishaps this spacecraft encountered, it's been a good effort to get it home.
I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive.
Being the avid Sci-fi fan that I am, I can't help but wonder if the the people who made the choice of landing of Hayabusa in an unpopulated outback of Australia gave any thought to the idea that the asteroid Itokawa may be a source of biological contaminants?
What I'm saying is, Hayabusa lands in the heart of unpopulated Australia, then a small town in the area gets ravaged by "bio-terror", then the military issues a media blackout.. You know, the standard plot of a zombie outbreak ensues..
I can't be the only one who thought of this scenario.. Does anyone else think the same as me? Discuss!
tl;dr - Choice of remote Australian outback for Hayabusa to stem contagion fears in case of zombie outbreak?? Discuss.
"[...]it will land in the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia."
As far as I can tell, any place with "prohibited area" in the name doesn't sound hospitable.
Learn to love Alaska
"See the earth below,
Soon to make a crater!
Blue sky, black death,
I’m off to meet my maker!"
[End Of Line]
Does anyone know if there is more information? I.e. Which side of Australia will it approach from and a more exact time? I'll be a couple of hours out of Sydney and would like to know if it will be observable. A quick search around NASA's website and Google didn't reveal anything helpful.
Any place called "prohibited area" in Australia must be a horrible, horrible place to live.
In case you haven't followed that drama you should do that now. Keeping that bird in control, managing it to do some science and finally getting it back was seriously heroic by JAXA. This was easily the most problem-ridden probe ever making it back (well, almost now). I hope the last leg of that epic journey will go well.
Hmmm... hate to answer my own question, but the details of the trajectory are here: http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/hayabusa/trj.shtml#new
Looks like Western Australia should get a glimpse as it flies past, although I don't think you'd see it from Perth - would have to be a fair bit north of there I'd imagine... maybe somewhere in between Carnarvon and Karratha?
NASA astronomers will be flying onboard a specially equipped DC-8
Sure, right.
We all know that when they say "astronomers" they really mean Xenu.
We all know that when they say "DC-8"s the really mean space ships that look exactly like DC-8s.
Don't be fooled people! It's all happening again!
The Japanese will probably just get fined for littering.
We haven't had much luck fining them for killing whales so I don't like our chances with this one.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
There's an important point to the re-entry process, separate from the asteroid sample: the craft will be coming at interplanetary speed (about escape velocity from Earth) -- is much faster than typical re-entries from Earth-orbit. Seeing if the heat-shielding technology will work is important for future missions around the solar system.
Maybe they're using a new kind of heat shield and want to see how it performs. It's really expensive to get something massive up into space and accelerate it down into the atmosphere at a speed that would cause it to burn up; maybe they have to wait for occasions like this to get good data.
Indeed. It's a testing ground for various military purposes, and in the 1950s the British government tested nuclear weapons there.
However there is a (small) population there. The mailman has to use a helicopter because the area is the size of England.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
It's not like they're going to be sitting on beach towels here, they're going to be observing the inbound flight from an airborne lab on a DC-8 to record the condition of the returning probe as it penetrates the atmosphere. As far as I remember the reaction control system is dead so this thing will be coming in on a trajectory much like an asteroid. Except it's man made and carrying a cargo we're interested in. It was designed for controlled re-entry but since that's not possible this is a great opportunity to see what happens to spacecraft like this when bad things happen in the air.
What wouldn't be gained from observing and recording a piece of hardware like this as it falls through the atmosphere?
As a taxpayer, you should be more upset about your government bailing out auto-makers and becoming mired in costly foreign conflicts.
Best. Mail. Job. Ever.
Not really: Woomera was a missile test range, and the dingoes have taken over the old SAM emplacements.
Blank until
The spacecraft is expected to land in an unpopulated area of Australia
Australia is populated?
"A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
Considering they lost one of the shuttles and it's ENTIRE FUCKING CREW due to A HEAT SHIELD FAILURE, it seems that taking advantage of any available research opportunity into heat shielding is A GOOD IDEA!
Maybe you don't like NASA spending money on space.
After all, we don't know what gains we'll get from it.
Now that may be true, but then again, they've got a really good 'payback' rate, even if they aren't a profit center.
You like your cellphones, your satellite or cable tv, weather reports and warnings, tons of materials, medicine, maths, electronics, and so many other things you could write a book about it, and people have, you really should thank NASA. Their contributions to the total knowledge and even applications of that knowledge is absolutely huge and in almost all fields of endeavor. (Except porn, I really don't think NASA has done anything on human sexuality in space, but I'm not sure of that.)
So if you want to crawl back into your cave and ignore the contributions they made and ignore the even greater ones that can only come about if they are allowed to do that research you call "boondoggles", then just remember the reply Faraday gave when asked what use electricity was, he simply replied, "What use is a baby?".
I find your ideas intriguing, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter!
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
Don't think that coming in from 300,000 times the altitude is going to make a teeny-weeny bit of difference in the re-entry velocity? It's one thing to re-enter from orbit, but it's quite a different ball game to re-enter from an interplanetary trajectory. This bird will be coming in hot!
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Float upside down, and ....
Uh, in 0-g, there is no "upside-down"
It's all relative. I'd assume relative to what would normally be the "floor" of the cabin. If not, relative to the other observer (but hopefully not a relative of the observer). You always have to establish some point of reference for direction, which I'd assume would be done sometime well before you tried to get freaky in space. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
It is true that there aren't many parts of the world that are unpopulated. However, large tracts of Australia genuinely are. There are certain patches of Australia where it is likely that no human has ever set foot (yes, including Aborigines). There really are very few other places in the world that are as 'empty' as the interior of Australia. Antarctica obviously. And random areas of the Greenland ice cap. And not much else.
However in this case the area mentioned in the article is empty not because of its remoteness, but because it's a military reserve/testing ground. They did atmospheric nuclear testing there in the 50s. Non authorised personnel aren't allowed - so they can be reasonably confident it's 'unpopulated' for the purposes of the Hayabusa landing.
It's just a name. Like the "Death Zone" or the "Zone of No Return". All the zones have names like that on the Continent of Terror.
(albeit a very rude one!)
Meh, bad morning with little coffee. It probably wasn't an entirely appropriate response, but it's out there.
Regarding my claim that JAXA is probably footing the bill, no, I have no citations to back that up. I know this is a JAXA mission because I have followed Hayabusa for years now, eagerly, so I have done research. I made the claim regarding NASA being hired as consultants based on past experiences working with NASA through other agencies (namely the university I attended and one of my previous employers). Sometimes NASA feels charitable enough to donate their time and efforts to help other organizations. Often, NASA does not feel this way and, if you want their consultation on a matter, you will get charged for it. Even when you foot the bill for such consultation, it is pretty common for NASA to ask for whatever data/feedback you can provide them with as a means of reducing the hefty price of asking for NASA's help. I would wager that some kind of contract that describes NASA's relationship with JAXA on this project exists somewhere, but I doubt I will ever have access to it.
That said, my claims were made from personal experience in the work I have done with NASA only.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!