The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond

jpaul · 27 Sep 2022 at 09:45

hmmh - not sure you need to hit it in the centre (especially if you were converging on a opposite trajectory ) physics and all that

Penfold101 · 27 Sep 2022 at 16:18

jpaul said:
Countdown to DART Impact

In a first-of-its-kind test for planetary defense, NASA’s DART spacecraft is scheduled next week to crash into an asteroid and alter the celestial body’s course.

physics.aps.org

would be interesting to know how guidance system compares with a terrain following cruise missile,
eg. redundancy capability , like votiing system on some multi processing aircraft systems

e: what time did it really hit it - it was 7million miles away , sun is 93m , light takes 3/6? minutes to get here so why couldn't they have adjusted it in last hour (battery saving ? so comms irregular)

Like you say - bad communications, camera failure, aerial failure, any number of possible issues could have affected it on the way in. If it can adjust itself you stand a much better chance of it all working. Imagine if the moon they were trying to hit ended up at such an angle that the moon happened to be in the way during that time period etc.

Malevolence · 5 Oct 2022 at 16:57

Crew Dragon launch to the ISS, T- 3:30

mrk · 6 Oct 2022 at 22:40

Colonel_Klinck · 8 Oct 2022 at 14:43

The final idea for artificial gravity on a Mars mission seems like the simplest one I've seen yet. Video starts at 16.30

Colonel_Klinck · 11 Oct 2022 at 20:03

DART mission update, they moved the asteroid further than they expected so huge success. Orbit went from 11hr55min to 11hr23min

jpaul · 11 Oct 2022 at 21:21

so they changed the orbit or domorphose around didymos ... but what if it was didymos heading towards us ..

from the 4 telescope opbservations they collected that *somewhat* overlayed, fascinating how they precisely aligned the impact to obtain the collision, without didymos being in the way,
assuming the intercept was solved numerically what the computing platform and simulation time was.

Malevolence · 12 Oct 2022 at 05:23

Man, that's a big rocket. :cool:

Penfold101 · 12 Oct 2022 at 13:21

jpaul said:
so they changed the orbit or domorphose around didymos ... but what if it was didymos heading towards us ..

from the 4 telescope opbservations they collected that *somewhat* overlayed, fascinating how they precisely aligned the impact to obtain the collision, without didymos being in the way,
assuming the intercept was solved numerically what the computing platform and simulation time was.

It’s almost like they know what they’re doing or something…

They specifically chose that asteroid and it’s moon as the orbit was so small and known precisely - even the smallest change would be easily noticed, unlike if they hit the larger one as that is orbiting the Sun and would be a lot less of a difference to calculate.

That’s the handy thing about orbital mechanics - as soon as you find an object orbiting another one, you can calculate the mass of the larger body very easily, as the mass of the smaller one is irrelevant. All that matters is distance and orbital period.

Penfold101 · 12 Oct 2022 at 13:21

Malevolence said:
Man, that's a big rocket.

That’s a big explosion waiting to happen…

Colonel_Klinck · 12 Oct 2022 at 13:33

I can't wait for it to launch. I really hope it doesn't go bang and not only makes it to orbit but they land the booster and have a soft water landing of the starship.

PlacidCasual · 12 Oct 2022 at 13:38

Penfold101 said:
That’s a big explosion waiting to happen…

Potentially. Given SpaceX are the most successful rocket launch company in the World at the moment I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Penfold101 · 12 Oct 2022 at 13:49

PlacidCasual said:
Potentially. Given SpaceX are the most successful rocket launch company in the World at the moment I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

More than likely - as you say, they aren’t knew at this.

If it does go boom however, I’d be expecting to hear that from here…

jpaul · 13 Oct 2022 at 13:28

...

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Planetary Defense Investigations and Requirements

accessible asteroid binary system with an orbit conducive to measuring orbit changes via light-curve measurements, to which an efficient, affordable kinetic impactor demonstration mission can be sent, and from which meaningful results can be extracted without waiting decades for a suitable opportunity.
.....
Finally, Dimorphos, at roughly 165 m diameter, is close to (but above) the minimum size (140 m) for an object to be defined as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA).

The spacecraft has the opportunity of changing the arrival time by up to ±60° of true anomaly, or by roughly 2 hr, during a trajectory correction maneuver 40 days prior to impact.

LICIACube will have a flyby distance of 55 km, and its imagery, with a best resolution of 1.4 m pixel−1 (Dotto et al. 2021), will be used to determine near-field ejecta properties.

Malevolence · 22 Oct 2022 at 18:00

Vulcan · 22 Oct 2022 at 18:46

Without watching the video is there a definitive launch date? Last time I checked there was some confusion over whether it would be 28th or 31st October.

Malevolence · 22 Oct 2022 at 18:49

Longbow said:
Without watching the video is there a definitive launch date? Last time I checked there was some confusion over whether it would be 28th or 31st October.

My app says the 31st.

Vulcan · 31 Oct 2022 at 22:55

Less than 14 hours to go. USSF-44 Falcon Heavy launch set for lift-off at Tuesday 13:41 GMT. This will be the fourth Falcon Heavy flight. They will be landing both the boosters but discarding the center core.

Colonel_Klinck · 1 Nov 2022 at 16:44

Shame it was so foggy but Falcon Heavy performed perfectly once again

VaderDSL · 1 Nov 2022 at 16:47

Love hearing the sonic booms! But was a shame with the amount of fog.

** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Planetary Defense Investigations and Requirements​

The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Planetary Defense Investigations and Requirements