Asteroids & Comets
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KLiK Send message Joined: 31 Mar 14 Posts: 1307 Credit: 22,994,597 RAC: 60 
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The B612 Foundation headed up by Astronauts Ed Lu and Rusty Schweickart, among others, proposes to put a Sentinel satellite in an orbit that is roughly opposite that of Venus. It will conduct a 6.5 year survey of asteroids by detecting their infrared signatures. The back of Sentinel always points toward the sun which powers it's solar panels. The satellite looks outward into our solar system. This means it will be scanning for it's entire 6.5 year life - not hindered by our atmosphere, weather or sun light. Sentinel is to be built by Ball Aerospace. B612 intends to build, launch and operate Sentinel strictly through public funding. Wrong point to pick! Lagrange points L1-L3 are unstable equilibriums...only L4 & L5 are stable equilibriums, so only those can be used for checking up the Solar system! ;)   non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU |
 tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 
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AFAIK the DSCOVR observatory (GoreSAT) to be launched Jan 29 atop a SpaceX rocket from Cape Canaveral is sent to L1. Tullio |
rob smith    Send message Joined: 7 Mar 03 Posts: 22729 Credit: 416,307,556 RAC: 380 
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While L1-L3 are unstable equilibrium they are probably good enough for the three or four years required for this mission. Don't forget that there are going to be other forces acting on the vessel than just that define the L1-L3 points - solar radiation on the panels, the thrust from the heat exhaust from the cooling system being but two, so even in L4 & L5 station keeping thrusters would be required. Bob Smith Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society) Somewhere in the (un)known Universe? |
John Chrzastek  Send message Joined: 28 May 12 Posts: 45 Credit: 29,723,112 RAC: 0 
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Sincere thanks rob smith and KLiK. I had no idea there were such things as Lagrange Points. Wow. An eye opener. -John Chrzastek |
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John Chrzastek Send message Joined: 28 May 12 Posts: 45 Credit: 29,723,112 RAC: 0
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[url]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4441 [/url] Nice graphic from NASA showing approach of asteroid 2004 BL86. It will reach it's closest point to earth on January, 26 2015. Asteroid is 1/3 of a mile (across?) and will come within 7450,000 miles (1.2 km) of earth. It will be observed by radar from Gold Stone & AO. ((If anyone knows how to post a working URL please advise ... clicking the URL button just seems to insert " [url] " hypertext markers before and after the link. Thanks in advance. -John)) |
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John Chrzastek Send message Joined: 28 May 12 Posts: 45 Credit: 29,723,112 RAC: 0
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Correction ... that should read 745,000 miles :-( |
Bob DeWoody  Send message Joined: 9 May 10 Posts: 3387 Credit: 4,182,900 RAC: 10
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Correction ... that should read 745,000 miles :-( and 1.2 million km. Bob DeWoody My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events. |
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John Chrzastek Send message Joined: 28 May 12 Posts: 45 Credit: 29,723,112 RAC: 0
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Yup. Thanks. Details matter. |
Lynn  Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 14162 Credit: 79,603,650 RAC: 123
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KLiK Send message Joined: 31 Mar 14 Posts: 1307 Credit: 22,994,597 RAC: 60
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William Rothamel  Send message Joined: 25 Oct 06 Posts: 3756 Credit: 1,999,735 RAC: 4
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The launch platform would be an arm that extended away from the space station. If you wanted to you could set the rocket free and move it away from the space station using small thrusters before firing the main engines. this would not be necessary however as long as the rocket backwash did not hit the space station. As you can see below the jeep would not experience any motion whatsoever since the 106mm weapon is a rocket.  |
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John Chrzastek Send message Joined: 28 May 12 Posts: 45 Credit: 29,723,112 RAC: 0
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I tried a couple of things this morning trying to get the URL to go live so to speak but no luck so far. This probably won't work either but the site added some updated graphics for 2004 BL86. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ |
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Lynn Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 14162 Credit: 79,603,650 RAC: 123
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I tried a couple of things this morning trying to get the URL to go live so to speak but no luck so far. This probably won't work either but the site added some updated graphics for 2004 BL86. John, made your link click able. * [url] any http [/url] - don't put spaces between the bracketed code and the text you are applying the code to. |
Carlos  Send message Joined: 9 Jun 99 Posts: 31169 Credit: 57,275,487 RAC: 157
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Here is the Sky and Telecope story about the Jan 26 fly by. |
Julie  Send message Joined: 28 Oct 09 Posts: 34065 Credit: 18,883,157 RAC: 18 
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Lynn Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 14162 Credit: 79,603,650 RAC: 123
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Asteroid That Flew Past Earth Today Has Moon Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, have released the first radar images of asteroid 2004 BL86. The images show the asteroid, which made its closest approach today (Jan. 26, 2015) at 8:19 a.m. PST (11:19 a.m. EST) at a distance of about 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers, or 3.1 times the distance from Earth to the moon), has its own small moon. http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/asteroid-that-flew-past-earth-today-has-moon/index.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1y7CYf4X3Lo&x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688 Video included. |
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John Chrzastek Send message Joined: 28 May 12 Posts: 45 Credit: 29,723,112 RAC: 0
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An interesting interview with Ed Lu... http://www.vox.com/2015/1/27/7920865/asteroid-risk-ed-lu |
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Lynn Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 14162 Credit: 79,603,650 RAC: 123
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An interesting interview with Ed Lu... Thanks John. NASA not looking out for asteroids, not good. Happy others are watching. |
Gary Charpentier  Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 31199 Credit: 53,134,872 RAC: 32
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An interesting interview with Ed Lu... Fortunately, someone is looking ... http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/ 
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Lynn Send message Joined: 20 Nov 00 Posts: 14162 Credit: 79,603,650 RAC: 123
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An interesting interview with Ed Lu... Thanks Gary. |
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