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Post by Bob k6tr on Dec 29, 2009 19:51:13 GMT
Hey Guys, Anyone have a feel for what may have caused the gap in GOES14 X-ray data around midnight (Z) today??? G. Another one, just past 19:00Z! G. These are probably just communications glitches. GOES right now is a patched up kluge of new and old series satellites. GOES 14 is only supplying X-Ray Data but is otherwise in storage. I would not expect the system to be cleaned up until GOES P is launched and completed testing. GOES 10 may be gone but the system is still in flux. |
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Post by George Kominiak on Jan 2, 2010 14:18:45 GMT
Hey Guys!
It looks like the latest images posted on SOHO's Site are from 31 Dec.
Not only that, the STEREO Sites will not open!!
'Wonder if there's a serious problem?
G.
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Post by George Kominiak on Jan 2, 2010 21:26:29 GMT
Hey Guys,
As of 21:25Z today there are no STEREO images or current SOHO/EIT images!
G.
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Post by lsvalgaard on Jan 5, 2010 18:09:36 GMT
we were just told that the launch of SDO will likely not be on Feb. 3. Current rumor is a 6 day slip.
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Post by Bob k6tr on Jan 6, 2010 2:41:53 GMT
we were just told that the launch of SDO will likely not be on Feb. 3. Current rumor is a 6 day slip. Thanks for the poop Leif. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be pushback behind the next shuttle mission. |
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Post by George Kominiak on Jan 7, 2010 2:40:41 GMT
we were just told that the launch of SDO will likely not be on Feb. 3. Current rumor is a 6 day slip. Thanks for the poop Leif. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be pushback behind the next shuttle mission. Let's hope they don't slip the launch too much. If a real blast from the old Sun takes out any of the instruments on SOHO, we'll ALL be in trouble!!! G. |
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radun
Level 3 Rank
Posts: 152
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Post by radun on Jan 11, 2010 16:13:09 GMT
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Post by csspider57 on Jan 11, 2010 21:20:32 GMT
Looks to me like the occulting disc? got jerked about or some motion creating an artifact? Or we could let or speculative imaginations go running wild with quadra....ah never mind. ;D |
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Post by Bob k6tr on Jan 22, 2010 19:57:52 GMT
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Post by Bob k6tr on Jan 26, 2010 15:55:37 GMT
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Post by lsvalgaard on Jan 26, 2010 17:12:21 GMT
TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010
The spacecraft NASA is calling the "crown jewel" mission for probing solar physics was delivered to a Cape Canaveral rocket assembly building and mounted aboard its launcher Tuesday morning.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory had spent the past six months at the Astrotech complex in Titusville being readied for flight. Last week, the satellite was enclosed in the two-piece nose cone and set aboard the transportation trailer for its trip to join the Atlas 5 rocket.
Managers met Monday and gave formal approval to proceed with SDO's attachment to the launch vehicle. Officials determined that the continuing efforts to clear a concern with the rocket's main engine would not impede Tuesday's milestone move.
In the early morning hours Tuesday, the satellite was trucked across the Kennedy Space Center to Complex 41's Vertical Integration Facility at the Cape where the Atlas stood stacked on a mobile launching platform. The trip began at 12:50 a.m. EST and took about four hours, NASA said.
By 8 a.m., cranes started hoisting the 6,800-pound spacecraft into the building through the open doorway and gently maneuvering SDO into place atop the Centaur upper stage.
Launch of the Atlas 5 rocket remains targeted for February 9 at 10:30 a.m. EST. Between now and then, a final round of checks will be performed to ensure SDO is in perfect shape for its mission. Also, a combined test for the rocket and its payload will be conducted to verify systems are operating in synch for ascent.
Also upcoming is the review process to give the "go" for sending the Atlas 5 and SDO into space. The Flight Readiness Review is scheduled for Friday, February 5 to assess the status of preparations. That meeting will be followed by the Launch Readiness Review on Sunday, February 7, culminating in clearance for rolling the rocket out to the launch pad and beginning the countdown on Monday, February 8.
Details of the engine issue remain out of the public relm because of the foreign-made hardware involved. Officials are working to make certain that a problem on a different Russian engine has no impact on the successful use of the powerplant installed on SDO's rocket. NASA says the concern might not be put to rest until the FRR late next week.
The other wildcard for making SDO's launch date is the space shuttle Endeavour, which is slated for blastoff from nearby pad 39A on Sunday, February 7. The Air Force-run Eastern Range at the Cape needs about 48 hours between flights of different space vehicles to reconfigure tracking, safety and communications systems from one launch to another. Any scrubs in Endeavour's launch would delay SDO accordingly.
The Atlas launch sequence will last an hour and 49 minutes from liftoff until deployment of SDO from the Centaur upper stage. The craft will be released into a highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit with a high point of 21,970 statute miles, low point of 1,555 statute miles and inclination of 28.5 degrees.
In the subsequent weeks, SDO's own propulsion system will circularize the orbit to approximately 22,300 miles over the equator in view of its ground station in New Mexico. Since the inclination will be left at 28.5 degrees, the satellite's motion in the sky will appear as a "figure eight" pattern.
If all goes well, full science observations should begin about 60 days after launch and last at least five years.
"It will observe the Sun faster, deeper and in greater detail than any previous observations, breaking barriers of time, scale and clarity that have long blocked progress in solar physics," said Madhulika Guhathakurta, the SDO program scientist at NASA Headquarters.
"It is going to revolutionize our view of the Sun and it will reveal how solar activity affects our planets and helps us anticipate what lies ahead."
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Post by Bob k6tr on Jan 26, 2010 17:12:39 GMT
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Post by Bob k6tr on Jan 31, 2010 6:22:13 GMT
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Post by scpg02 on Jan 31, 2010 16:46:32 GMT
How exciting. I have a friend who has great pictures like that of Magellan. History in the making.
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Post by Bob k6tr on Jan 31, 2010 21:09:00 GMT
How exciting. I have a friend who has great pictures like that of Magellan. History in the making. If all goes well it should be quite a mission. The capabilities of SDO will tower over anything now in space. SOHO dazzled the public when it returned it's first images of Solar Flares to earth. SOHO went on to gain visibility for NASA's Unmanned Exploration Program greater than the combined exposure for all previous missions. In short SOHO embedded the program into the consciousness of the American Public. With all of it's capability SOHO still could only return 1 Medium Definition image of the Sun every 3 minutes. And few of those were returned in Realtime. SDO will be able to return 1 High Defnition image of the Sun every 10 seconds and those will be beamed down in Realtime. The capabilities of the Magnetic Imager and the UV Equipment will eclipse those aboard SOHO by similar margins render farside images that will be usable and UV Data far more sensitive and detailed. There are some interesting projects planned for the future but they will not be launched until 2015 at the earliest. After SDO NASA is scheduled to launch GOES P for NOAA March 1. And that will be it for a while. So let's hope SDO's launch comes off without a hitch. |
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