Rosetta’s team faced two additional challenges: The comet had a swooping elliptical orbit rather than a more circular one like most asteroids, which made it hard to match its speed and velocity.
During the probe’s 10-year voyage, it gained speed through three Earth flybys and then swung by Mars before making a beeline for the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet and deploying the Philae lander to it. This was the option chosen for the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, which launched in 2004 on a comet-bound mission, says Andrea Accomazzo, the head of the agency’s solar system and exploration missions division. Focusing on power from the liftoff and from the onboard propulsion system would give the mission planners some flexibility about launch times, he thinks, potentially allowing them to make the journey without counting on an alignment with Mars.Īnother option for a spacecraft that needs a speed boost is to fling itself past Earth. Parker says that using the Falcon Heavy for launch is another advantage, because it will give the spacecraft more kinetic energy to start with than a smaller rocket would, which means it has to come up with less solar energy en route. He’s also the chief technology officer at Advanced Space, an aerospace company based in Westminster, Colorado. “For planetary missions, we have to align everything just right, so that when we leave Earth when the planets are aligned, we can get to the destination with a reasonable amount of fuel,” says Jeff Parker, lead mission designer for EscaPADE, an orbiter mission to study Mars’s atmosphere that was planned to launch along with Psyche. Timing is also key: NASA scientists have to coordinate the destination’s orbit with those of Earth and any intermediate bodies that could provide gravity boosts. (The maneuver in effect steals energy from the planet, slowing Mars’ orbit, but by a negligible amount.) It requires lots of energy to voyage that far, so NASA had originally planned for the probe to attempt a Mars flyby-a convenient halfway point-to provide an extra power boost some call a “gravity whip.” The move would turn gravitational energy into kinetic energy, speeding up the craft. “We have today a beautiful functioning spacecraft, built and ready, but there was that one challenge we couldn’t overcome in time to launch in 2022 with confidence.”įlying to Psyche, a massive member of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is no simple matter. “We have no known problems with the software, but we just haven’t been able to test it,” Elkins-Tanton, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University and head of the mission, said during a virtual press conference in June announcing the delay. That means they’ll have to miss their crucial 2022 launch period. While engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have completed the guidance, navigation, and control system, they and their colleagues at Maxar Technologies haven’t been able to thoroughly test and validate it.
NASA LAUNCH SOFTWARE
Launch day was supposed to come sometime between August and early October.īut Psyche’s software derailed their plan. She and her team designed and assembled the NASA spacecraft-also called Psyche-and booked a ride for it on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
"NASA is adding capacity and rocketing (the region) into the global spotlight for investors.For years, Lindy Elkins-Tanton had been looking forward to blasting a probe to the metallic asteroid Psyche, which is orbiting about 230 million miles away and may be the remains of a protoplanet whose surface was smashed to bits eons ago. "This is a landmark occasion for the Top End," Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyle said, referring to the geographic region at the territory's north. The Northern Territory government has backed the project from its inception, investing A$5 million ($3.6 million) in ELA to develop the Arnhem Space Centre, the company said. The Arnhem Space Centre was recently awarded a launch facilities licence and launch permit for the NASA campaign after a two-year evaluation by the Australian Space Agency.
The launches will be the first by the U.S. REUTERS/Joe SkipperĪbout 75 NASA personnel will be in Australia for the event, the prime minister said. Workers pressure wash the logo of NASA on the Vehicle Assembly Building before SpaceX will send two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., May 19, 2020.
0 kommentar(er)
