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Marooned Off Vesta
mcgrew writes with this quote from an AP report:
"After four years sailing through space, the Dawn spacecraft was expected to slip into orbit late Friday around a giant asteroid to begin a yearlong investigation into the origins of the solar system. It is the first of two scheduled tour stops for the NASA probe that almost never made it to the launch pad. Because of its stunted growth, Vesta holds 'a record of the earliest history of the solar system,' said the mission's lead scientist Christopher Russell of the University of California, Los Angeles."
Dawn's mission homepage has all the information and pictures collected so far. On July 9th, it snapped our best look to date at the ~530-kilometer-wide Vesta, from 40,000 kilometers away. When it arrives, it will take observations from successively lower orbits, the final one being only 460km above Vesta's surface. Next May, Dawn will break orbit and head to Ceres. (mcgrew adds, "The submission's title is a nod to Isaac Asimov. Lets hope Dawn doesn't get marooned!")
First pictures of the vesta as the spacecraft approaches!
What is a robotic probe gonna do with all of that?
I read it and thought "Oh sh*t!" (including the "*", I tend to censor my thoughts that way.)
First pictures of the vesta as the spacecraft approaches!
They should have targeted the Wendows 7 asteroid.
530 kilometers = 329.326732 miles
First pictures of the vesta as the spacecraft approaches!
maroon 2
verb [ trans. ] (often be marooned)
leave (someone) trapped and isolated in an inaccessible place, esp. an island : a novel about schoolboys marooned on a desert island.
Yeah, so where is the part about Dawn being trapped???
Why is it that an artist rendition done in the name of science is so poorly done? You get the impression that there are big chunks of rock floating every couple of miles/kilometeres in space. This is one reason why we can't get kids straight about science... and this is approved by the scientists!
First pictures of the vesta dwarf planet as the spacecraft approaches!
The pictures that are being shown like this one (http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/dawn_vesta_image_070911.asp) are from the Framing Camera. It is using the free RTOS RTEMS (http://www.rtems.org) and using a space hardened SPARC V7. It was launched in September 2007. Congratulations to all the people involved!!
Just in case anyone wanted to know 'Marooned off Vesta' was the title of Isaac Isamov's first published (short) story. As I remember it was fairly good.
First pictures of the vesta as the spacecraft approaches!
The combination of the submission title and the quote being in past tense ("After four years sailing through space, the Dawn spacecraft was expected to slip into orbit late Friday around a giant asteroid...") made me think something went wrong!
Here's hoping all goes well!
I've often thought that if I were an alien intent on long-term observation of the solar system, I'd plant myself on either Vesta or (more likely) Ceres due to abundant construction material and (on Ceres) ice to crack to fuel, just enough gravity well to keep things from floating off, and just far enough away that you don't have to worry about the savages until they (hopefully) grow up.
Yeah I know, it would be one of those one in a million sort of things, but a nerd can dream.
First pictures of the vesta as the spacecraft approaches!
I don't care if the name of the post is a nod to Asimov, it is completely misleading. As one of those who has been following this story, I saw your headline and suddenly was shocked at the possibility that there was some communication error or another problem that would cause the craft to actually be marooned. Well, you got your pageclick. I hope the added revenue of a misleading title is worth the loss in credibility to the website.
Get into a spacesuit, walk to the water tanks and shoot them with a raygun. That will give you enough trust to land on Vesta. Gravity there isn't strong enough to crush a cookie. Here. Was it that hard, loserboy nerd? As soon as we make landfall, I'll shove your head down the last working toilet on the Silver Queen.
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
he should have registered as spacenutter1 - 6 and then he could troll while he's trolling and Xhibit would come out to hand him the keys
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Karma Whoring: http://www.polvoestelar.com.mx/babilonia/Libros/Isaac%20Asimov/English/Short%20Stories/Isaac%20Asimov%20-%20The%20Best%20of%20Isaac%20Asimov.pdf
First story in the PDF. I'd never read it until today--great stuff.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
/. editors get a lot of flak (and I'm guilty myself sometimes), but I have to point out that the summary is far superior to what I submitted. Soulskill not only added relevant copy, but he also added all the links except the one to TFA. He did more work than I on it, and I'm pleased with what he did. Good job, sir!
The nod to Asimov was for two reasons. First, I've been a rabid Asimov fan for half a century, and second, the Dawn spacecraft is man's first visit to Vesta, and Marooned off Vesta was Asimov's first published story.
I see only 27 comments have been posted, and I hope the title isn't the reason for the lack of commentary, with people thinking it's some of my bad sci-fi.
Free Martian Whores!
I give you our million-dollar NASA probe we used to have!
********************
I object to Intellect without Discipline.
Actually, the Dawn website does not have all the pictures collected so far. It only has the images that the project scientists are willing to let the public see. Most of the images from Dawn have not been released. Unlike the Cassini project, which posts all their images promptly as they are received, the Dawn project has adopted a policy of releasing only one image per week during the approach to Vesta. For example, on July 1 Dawn was scheduled to perform a "rotation characterization", taking images throughout a Vestian day in order to view the asteroid from all sides. But only one image from July 1 has been released. Apparently this policy has been justified on the theory that it "piques curiosity more than showing everything". Members of the public who prefer not to be manipulated in this way, and who are unhappy about being denied the opportunity to share the excitement of taxpayer-funded planetary exploration through expeditious release of Dawn images, are encouraged to contact JPL, NASA, and their members of Congress to make their feelings known.
It *should* be slipping into orbit at about 10pm Pacific time on Friday, July 15th -- i.e. in a few hours. But we won't actually know if it did until Sunday morning, when they stop thrusting with the ion engine and point the antenna towards Earth (the antenna doesn't pivot, so they have to choose between either communicating or using the engine). There's a pretty good "question and answer" at space.com with this and other tidbits. One of the coolest things is the way that even if they miss the insertion into orbit, they'll have plenty of time to try again -- unlike the usual high-acceleration orbital insertion burn for a non-ion-engine, where if you miss the orbital insertion you might have to go back around the Sun and try again. The two orbits (Vesta's and Dawn's) are already so close that Dawn is gently drifting into capture by Vesta.