SPACE - random thread about space stuff

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:35 am

Unagi wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:21 am
raydude wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:07 am We should hit the asteroid around 7:14 EDT. The software written by yours truly should get the final images out a few minutes later, followed by inspection and validation by the science team before we release them to NASA, which will then release them to the general public by 8pm.
That is just so cool to me - /admiration!

So, question: the NASA Live official stream of this will not really be a live stream of the approach/crash - but rather something shared with us after 8pm EDT?

I believe the live stream is definitely live - but it will be the raw, unprocessed images, so not as good quality as after the image gets calibrated. The images I'm talking about are just a few stills right at impact along with some annotations by the scientists.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:10 am

I heard the last photo is expected 2.5 seconds before impact. Best luck, Dart!

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:13 am

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 10:42 am What an unforeseeable development!

Once more, with feeling.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:22 pm

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:13 am
Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sat Sep 24, 2022 10:42 am What an unforeseeable development!
Once more, with feeling.

It's really a no-brainer decision. The weather models are still all over the place and there is too much at stake to be wrong.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:24 pm

That has been my read. The more recent forecasts have a lower percentage chance of problematic weather hitting the cape, but given the unicorn nature of this particular rocket, > 0% seems too high.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:25 pm

raydude wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:07 am We should hit the asteroid around 7:14 EDT. The software written by yours truly should get the final images out a few minutes later, followed by inspection and validation by the science team before we release them to NASA, which will then release them to the general public by 8pm.

Very awesome to have something you worked on be part of something so significant

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:57 pm

Don't know if you guys can see it, but when we zoom in to our livefeed we can just barely resolve the satellite asteroid, Dimorphos.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:13 pm

Live feed from NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:15 pm

60 minutes until impact

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:16 pm

How weird would it be if, after a successful DART mission, they announced that this one had actually been headed straight for Earth?

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:19 pm

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:25 pm

Also, re: Starship plans at the Cape:

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:30 pm

Holman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:16 pm How weird would it be if, after a successful DART mission, they announced that this one had actually been headed straight for Earth?

Well - to be fair - the asteroid we are hitting is a tiny 'moon' of a much bigger asteroid, and we are only trying to measure the degree to which DART alters this little guy's orbit around it.

So, it would be super weird.

Plus, they totally promised this wasn't the case.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:33 pm

14,000 mph at collision.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:34 pm

My daughter just asked me what happens if we nudge it *into* a collision course.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:35 pm

Also says they won't bring Starship to LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center until "we have a good and reliable vehicle".

Or unless enough lawsuits get filed in Texas

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:51 pm

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:35 pm
Also says they won't bring Starship to LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center until "we have a good and reliable vehicle".
Or unless enough lawsuits get filed in Texas

True statement.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:07 pm

It's really cool to watch as Dimorphos slowly becomes more than a pixel as the approach continues.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:16 pm

Jesus, just the video data frames were amazing. Congrats, raydude!!

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:16 pm

That was amazing. The images of that asteroid were just perfect. Wow.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:19 pm

Rocks surrounded by rocks surrounded by rocks...

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:20 pm

The Meal wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:16 pm Jesus, just the video data frames were amazing. Congrats, raydude!!

+1 Congrats!

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:20 pm

So my company is on the LICIACube with star trackers to relay the data back to earth. Some not-to-be-posted-on-the-Internet stories circle around this one...

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:21 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:19 pm Rocks surrounded by rocks surrounded by rocks...

One's mind can almost picture the slow build-up of matter over the eons.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:25 pm

That really was amazing. Those final frames right before impact were unreal. I still cannot even begin to comprehend all the math and engineering that went into making that happen.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:25 pm

The Meal wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:20 pm So my company is on the LICIACube with star trackers to relay the data back to earth. Some not-to-be-posted-on-the-Internet stories circle around this one...

Is there any news on the cube's successful detachment, etc?

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:31 pm

Unagi wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:25 pm
The Meal wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:20 pm So my company is on the LICIACube with star trackers to relay the data back to earth. Some not-to-be-posted-on-the-Internet stories circle around this one...
Is there any news on the cube's successful detachment, etc?

It separated on 11 September, 2022 from DART by being ejected at roughly 4 km/h (2.5 mph) relative to DART, 15 days before impact.[4] After release, as part of the testing process to calibrate the miniature spacecraft and its cameras, LICIACube captured images of a crescent Earth and the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:32 pm

Yeah, they let loose a week or so ago. [edit: for some definitions of "a week or so"]

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:04 pm

Amazing.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:08 pm

hell yeah! I won't get into it now, but I had some quick code slinging to do in the last hour once we realized we had to get a slew of images out faster than the pipeline was working. It was some last minute, beating the countdown kind of stuff.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:31 pm

Ground telescopes are seeing the ejecta from DART impact

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:25 pm

Can see Jupiter's moons tonight with binoculars. From downtown Chicago. Crazy.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:25 pm

That was amazing. First the spacecraft stopped receiving any communications from Earth and guided its own final approach five minutes out. Then it stopped navigating and just cruised for the last two minutes. The signals took nearly a minute to reach Earth and then a few seconds more to process, so we were watching with a delay. I look forward to seeing images from the Meal's spacecraft.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:55 pm

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:30 pm

It tried to get one last shot out.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:03 am

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:30 pm It tried to get one last shot out.

Yes, it did. The ground software team built-in support for creating images out of partial data, since we figured the very last image would be a partial one.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:10 am

Unagi wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:30 pm
Holman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:16 pm How weird would it be if, after a successful DART mission, they announced that this one had actually been headed straight for Earth?
Well - to be fair - the asteroid we are hitting is a tiny 'moon' of a much bigger asteroid, and we are only trying to measure the degree to which DART alters this little guy's orbit around it.

So, it would be super weird. Plus, they totally promised this wasn't the case.

This is why we put the "Double" in "Double Asteroid Redirection Test". By choosing a target asteroid orbiting another asteroid we merely have to measure the change in orbital period (time it takes to make one orbit around the larger asteroid) to determine the effect of the impact. And, while orbital mechanics math is a little hard to grasp, the one thing you can depend on is that if you get the math right you can predict orbits way out with pretty good accuracy. And if you think of an orbit as the physical manifestation of the amount of energy an object has, you can predict the amount of energy needed to make an object "break out" of orbit. At max velocity, the kinetic energy added to Dimorphos by DART impact just isn't enough to make it break out of its orbit around Didymos.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:39 am

I love how this was all done without even knowing what these asteroids remotely ‘looked’ like. I don’t think any of the graphic sample models went with the kitty-litter turd look.

But seriously,

While the rest of civilization is crumbling around us it seems, it’s actually a tiny bit inspiring and brings hope to my mind when I see these amazing things we are capable of when we embrace science and facts and are forced to work under the unforgivable context of space.

Bravo.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:36 am

LICIACube live conference (10:35am EDT). I have no idea what they're saying. Waiting to see if they show some images.

Meal - one of these days we should talk about LICIACube. I also have stories. And questions.

Edited to show an image released by Italian Space Agency. Big object is Didymos, smaller object is Dimorphos. They stretched the contrast to show the debris caused by impact.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Sep 27, 2022 6:16 pm

From my post back on September 6th. Italics added.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 10:24 pm Anyway, what this does mean to me at least is that some bright person will suggest that if you are going to flow LH2 and may have to flow LOX, why don't you do another Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR)? It would be good to make sure that everything is working OK and makes sure that the bleed issue has been addressed.

And then some really bright person will suggest that maybe someone can lean on the range safety folks and get the waiver that extended the period for the Flight Termination System (FTS) extended some more. Like enough to change that proposed next Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) into another launch attempt.

So if the tanking test done on 9/21 had been a launch attempt, we would be orbiting the moon right now instead of sitting in the VAB and looking at a late October/early November launch. Just saying