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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!")
I read it and thought "Oh sh*t!" (including the "*", I tend to censor my thoughts that way.)
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.
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!
Nice try. Miles are defined in terms of metres, making metres the standard distance unit.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
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!
imperial is sometimes called standard... GP didn't say "the standard".. durrr
Um, you might want to read more than the headline before posting. Dawn is alive and well; the title was a nod to my favorite writer, a science fiction writer who was also a scientist (PhD in biochemistry, did cancer research and taught at Boston University before dying of AIDS).
Dawn's next stop - Ceres! (the second story Asimov wrote and the oldest still existing).
Free Martian Whores!