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Post Info TOPIC: The Stardust probe
Blobrana


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Live view of the Stardust Mission Operations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Times listed are in Pacific Standard Time (UTC - 8 hours)



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Blobrana


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The Stardust sample return capsule's entry will occur at approximately 9:57 GMT (2:57 am MST) January 15.
Peak re-entry heating is expected to occur at an altitude of 61 km, (200,000 feet). The main heating-phase occurs over northern central Nevada.



The best observing location will be south of the ground track, this is due to the influence of the Moon, which is just past full and will be high in the southwest sky.

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Blobrana


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Ten days before its historic return to Earth with the first-ever samples from a comet, NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully performed its 18th flight path adjustment. This second-to-last scheduled manoeuvre puts the spacecraft on the right path to rendezvous with Earth on Jan. 15 (Universal Time), when it will release its sample return capsule.

At 1800 UT (10:00 am Pacific Time) on Thursday, Jan. 5, Stardust fired all eight of its 4.4 Newton thrusters for a total of 107 seconds, changing the comet sampler's speed by 2.4 meters per second. The manoeuvre required 385 grams of hydrazine monopropellant to complete. A final trajectory correction manoeuvre is scheduled prior to release of the sample return capsule.

"It was a textbook manoeuvre. After sifting through all the post-burn data, I expect we will find ourselves right on the money" - Ed Hirst, Stardust deputy mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Source

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Blobrana


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The best time to watch the re-entry will be when the spacecraft is at least 20 deg. above the horizon closest to the time of its closest approach at about 11:15 U.T. January 15 U.T.
The predicted trajectory was released by JPL navigation 2005-Dec-29. It ends a few km above the ground over the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR).

Separation of the sample capsule from the probe: 15-Jan-2006 05:57:05.519 UTC
Time of atmosphere entry : 15-Jan-2006 09:56:40.855 UTC (@125 km)

Date__(UT)__HR:MN     R.A.(2000.0)  DEC   R.A.(apparent)
2006-Jan-05 00:00 *m  01 50 59.40 -11 00 09.7
2006-Jan-06 00:00 *m  01 51 00.22 -10 59 56.0  
2006-Jan-07 00:00 *m  01 51 02.63 -10 59 31.7 
2006-Jan-08 00:00 *m  01 51 07.14 -10 58 56.4  
2006-Jan-09 00:00 *m  01 51 14.10 -10 58 09.4  
2006-Jan-10 00:00 *m  01 51 24.19 -10 57 08.2  
2006-Jan-11 00:00 *m  01 51 38.83 -10 55 46.5 
2006-Jan-12 00:00 *m  01 52 01.27 -10 53 49.7 
2006-Jan-13 00:00 *m  01 52 40.28 -10 50 36.8 
2006-Jan-14 00:00 *   01 54 09.28 -10 43 30.9 
2006-Jan-15 00:00 *   02 02 00.60 -10 06 15.5




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Blobrana


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Just before 3 a.m. MST, the spacecraft will jettison its return capsule, which will plunge into Earth's atmosphere at nearly 29,000 miles per hour, the greatest return speed ever recorded. A few moments later, after the capsule slows to just faster than the speed of sound, a parachute will apply the brakes and Stardust will settle to the ground on the Air Force's Utah Testing and Training Range southwest of Salt Lake City.

"There's a lot at stake. You just hope everything works, and I am confident it will work" - Brownlee, the mission's principal investigator, or lead scientist.

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The Stardust probe had a dramatic encounter with Comet Wild-2, passing just 240 km away from the mountainous ball of ice, rock and dust, two years ago.
The craft sent back startling images of the object and grabbed particles streaming away from its nucleus to return to Earth.
The flyby occurred in deep space 389 million km from Earth at 1944 GMT, 1 January, 2004

Scientists say the probe's data will yield valuable information on the early history of the Solar System.
Dust from Wild-2 was scooped up by a robotic collector filled with aerogel - a very low-density glass - and stowed inside a sample-return capsule.
This will be delivered to Earth on 15 January, 2006; the capsule making a soft landing at the US Air Force Utah Test and Training Range.

The Stardust Sample Return Press Kit is now available:
Download (PDF - January 2006)

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