IMAGE CREDIT: Dr Scott Ferguson Capture the Gaia tilt back (8th March) from T31 at Q62 Siding Spring, NSW, Australia.
UPDATE: 8th Mar: Gaia glints again. Today the Gaia mission controllers tilted the spacecraft again from 45 degrees to 42 degrees then 0 degrees and back again. It was tilted more slowly this time to allow astronomers to get a more detailed light curve of the tilt. Mission controllers are problem solving a stray light issue that was picked up during commissioning tests.
UPDATE:28th Feb: Patrick Wiggins animated gif of Gaia.
Image Credit: (C) Patrick Wiggins
UPDATE 27th Feb: I missed it on both 26th and 27th due to cloud. However Scott Ferguson captured one image of it on 27th before also losing out to cloud. Patrick Wiggins has captured it and had it verified by other notables on the Minor Planet List.
Image Credit: Dr Scott Ferguson 2014-Feb-27 08:52 09h 50m 24.95s, +17d 32' 30.5"
8:52 UT from Observatory H06. Note the above plot is for Modesto California so the position is a lttile off in the map. The JPL Ephemeris tool for the LAT/Long of H06 was for 2014-Feb-27 09:00 09 50 24.95 +17 32 21.8 which is just a couple of arcsecs off. Given he only had one image, Scott also verified the position with a previous Mt Palomar plate of the location.
Image Credit: ESA GBOT (ground based observation tools) FOV output for the 2nd tilt on 27th Feb developed by S. Bouquillon & T. Carlucci utilizing Stilts , Aladin , ESO online digitized Sky Survey , CDSclient.
Amateur astronomers tonight are chasing the Gaia Glint.
As the Gaia spacecraft rounds the L2 Lagrange Point tonight on its mission to create a 3d map of our solar system, around 10:45 Local time [11:45 UT] the solar panels will turn back around to "flash" earth for about 24 hours.
Sadly the weather is looking poor at two of iTelescope.net's sites.
The ESA mission controllers have asked for a light curve of the turn. Easy peasy .... or so it seems.
The targeting is not the issue, the spacecraft will cruise in at Mag 20 to 20.5 and then over a period of 15-20 minutes will brighten to magnitude 15. Whilst magnitude 15 is within reach of most amateurs with sophisticated goto scopes, Mag 20.5 is a different prospect, requiring probably a few stacked images as it brightens. So its going to be hard to make it look any different to "off" & "on" and trap the subtelties of the rising magnitude.
Never one to shirk a challenge we'll give it a go. If not we can have another go tomorrow night as the spacecraft turns again and the reverse happens (fades from Mag 15 to 20).
I'm sure someone will catch it, there are a couple of others I know who are chasing it.
The spacecraft is going through some very detailed and precise commissioning tests as it orbits the L2 Lagrange point. When fully operational the spacecraft is required to maintain a constant spin rate of 0.016656 degrees per second, which is one rotation every 6 hours & 14.23 seconds. One of the comissioning tests was to put the spacecraft through a tilt from 0 to 45 degrees and back again, and like all good scientists they wanted an independent source of data to confirm the tilt process was completed properly and smoothly, and confirmed by their on board instruments as well as visually. Amateur astronomers are always up for a challenge and like to assist and be involved in the mission.
I'm not sure what is more impressive - the scientific feat, or the sense of humor with which it has been carried out.
This excellent (and funny) video outlines the development of the Dawn mission control center and the use of an Ion Drive in the mission, and where the Ion drives first ....ah... connects with our scientific cultural heritage. [Star Trek Movies] The actual concept of ion propulsion was first put to paper in 1911 by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky with Harold Kaufman testing the first prototype drive in 1959 after decades of research. Ion Drives have been used in a number of recent missions including Deep Space 1 and Hayabusa.
Image Credit: NASA JPL Dawn Mission
Chief Engineer Marc Rayman like all good Trekkies keeps a "ship's log". On July 13th Dawn was about 23,000 kilometers (14,000 miles) from Vesta, and approaching it at 37 meters per second (83 mph). Dawn remains on course as it continues ion thrusting to reach its first science orbit this weekend.
The Dawn spacecraft, on its way to Vesta then Ceres, will be the first spacecraft to enter an orbit around a main belt asteroid, it carries a scientific payload, with four experiments.
- Framing camera for guidance - Infrared and visual spectrometer - Gamma ray and Neutron spectrometer - Gravity science
Mission controllers are looking for return of the following data:
1) Images of Vesta and Ceres in three colors and black and white
2) Full surface with mapping spectrometer in three bands, 0.35 to 0.9 micron, 0.8 to 2.5 micron and 2.4 to 5.0 micron
3) Neutron and gamma ray spectra to produce maps of the surface elemental composition of each asteroid, including the abundance of major rock-forming elements (O, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, and Fe), trace elements (Gd and Sm), long-lived radioactive elements (K, Th, and U), and light elements such as H, C, and N, which are the major constituents of ices.
4) Radio tracking to determine mass, gravity field, principal axes, rotational axis and moments of inertia.
Scientists hope to learn about the makeup and composition of main belt asteroids, study their elements, identify any metals, trace elements and ice.
Recently main belt asteroid Scheila exhibited a brief cometary outburst (photos here) providing further possible evidence that some asteroids could carry significant amounts of ice.
The ten Kilogram GRaND - Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrograph, perhaps the most complex of the instruments, will detect what radiates off the asteroid as it is hit by cosmic waves. The Mission "Splat Diagram" explains the different forms of radiation that are emitted and how this is captured by the instrument.
Based on the data the mission controllers hope to learn more about how the asteroids in the belt were formed.
Image: Data control interface for Ion Drive.
The data could also be also very useful, it we ever decide to paint an asteroid in an attempt to divert its path over a number of years. It would be good to know which color to use, and any additives. ;-)
Congratulations once again to the NASA JPL team.
UPDATE: July 16. Dawn has successfully entered orbit around Vesta.
Its been a while since I hosted the Carnival - No, I haven't been hiding away on a tidally split blue-green planet held together by carbon nano-fibre tree roots. Not wanting to open a "Pandora's box" ;-), I've just been busy. So thanks Fraser for appointing an Australian host for the Carnival in the week Hayabusa touches down in the Australian Desert. [Image: Flight path of NASA DC-8 Hayabusa re-entry observation mission.]
If you are new here, a “Blog Carnival” is a whistle stop tour of Blogs around a particular community of interest – in this case Astronomy and Space. It features the best and most interesting highlights of this week’s blog posts from the contributors to the carnival. The purpose is to share, develop, encourage and network with those of a similar interest. For back-issues of earlier carnivals click here. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to carnivalofspace@gmail.com, and the next host will link to it.
Its been a big week for Japan with "three from three" in as many days. Ikaros deployed its solar sails, Hayabusa made it all the way to home base and to top things off - Japan had a great win over the powerful Cameroon football team in the World Cup.
This week AARTScope ran a live blog of the Hayabusa return with over 200 visitors dropping by to check-out the live action. So lets start this week with Space Missions.
Space Missions! Cheap Astronomy among other things, produces high quality Podcasts, and this week Steve Nerlich gives an extensive preview to the return of Hayabusa covering the full seven years of the mission.
Aron Sora seeks to create a paradox on Habitation Intention by suggesting we need a reverse doomsday clock tracking how far away we are getting from being a Space fareing society. A bit of thinly veiled activism. I love it!!!
Every organization/industry needs to learn and develop. Part of that journey is having a strong organizational memory. David Portree editor of Beyond Apollo and Beyond Shuttle makes a strong contribution to our organizational memory of space missions by carefully documenting the historical evolution of various space programs. David meticulously traces the decision points and tension between politics and science through out the journey. Some of those decisions sound vaguely familiar and relevent today. This week David covers the evolution of space station design throughout the 60s and 70s, the roadblocks and decision points and challenges along the way. Can you spot how many of the McDonnell concepts have made it through to today's Space Station.
Finally in Weird Sciences, Bruce Leeeowe known for his "theoretical approach to the space dimension and extraterrestrial life", discusses what every mission planner needs to know - the best contingency plan if you should encounter the scenario where your Spaceship's warp drive core is declared irretrievable. Bruce uses known science to push the boundaries of what just, might, be possible.....one day! Bruce also has a post that asks the question - "How old could entities be?"
[Youtube Video: NASA's video of Hayabusa "mothership" and landing pod re-entering the atmosphere] l Hayabusa was the highlight of the week and actualy lived up to the expectation, which now brings us to Hard Science.
Hard Science! Nancy Atkinson, Senior Editor of Universe Today, continues the Japanese theme, discussing some of Shimizu's mega space projects. The Japanese Space community have clearly demonstrated their ability to achieve amazing results......what are they thinking of next?
Paul Gilster's Centauri Dreams Blog covers the amazing latest research on β Pictoris produced by the ESO team. Not sure what is more exciting - the findings or the capabilities of ESO's Very large telescope and the Adonis instrument.
David Bigwood presents a a collection of images from the Lunar Planetary Imager....some great potential screensavers and desktop backgrounds among them.
The Chandra X-Ray team at Harvard celebrate the life and research of Geoffrey Burbidge and the legacy of his research on the enormous energies involved in violent events in gallactic nuclei. They also present a new image of CH Cyg that is fascinating, as it maps color data from three different telescopes to RGB creating an amazing insight into the behavior of CH Cyg.
