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mmm I think I can not make it to those dates july 19th is too early, september 16th too late
same here
Albi
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: Mar 21, 2004
Member#: 5692
Posts: 340
Location: The Netherlands
Posted:
Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:38 am Post subject:
Our little satellite is still orbiting planet Earth and all her systems are still performing beautifully, in the meantime completing more than 10.000 orbits and approaching her 2nd birthday
Yesterday we got some disturbing news however from the US Joint Space Operations Center: Delfi-C3 is going to have what's called a close approach with a piece of space debris that was created by the collision between two satellites last year (news article). They have predicted that the piece of debris will come as close as 500 meters to our satellite, now this may seem like a lot but the distances between passing satellites are usually much larger and there are so many disturbances up there that it can easily be a lot closer than that. As an example the first warning specified a distance of 133 meters while the update we received a day later said 492 meters. This 'incident' will happen at 14:49 GMT / UTC today, north-west of the continental US between New Foundland and Greenland. Our fingers are crossed!
SiriusCreations
Admiral (Administrator)
Joined: Aug 26, 2007
Member#: 18704
Posts: 4419
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Posted:
Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:59 am Post subject:
I am with you crossing my fingers Albi,
Please let us know what happened.
*starts blowing to the debris away from Delfi-C3 _________________ That's the beauty of music. They can't take that away from you. (Andy Dufresne)
Sirius' Concerts NUTs & RATs
Albi
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: Mar 21, 2004
Member#: 5692
Posts: 340
Location: The Netherlands
Posted:
Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:43 am Post subject:
Just received another update from the US JSPOC, the predicted smallest distance between our satellite and the piece of space debris is now 719 meters.
Below is a short movie of a simulation of the close approach (credits go to one of my co-workers). The quality might be a little bad but it at least gives you an idea.
Albi
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: Mar 21, 2004
Member#: 5692
Posts: 340
Location: The Netherlands
Posted:
Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:58 pm Post subject:
Good news, she's still in one piece We have just received a very clear telemetry signal from the satellite although we were unfortunately unable to decode any data due to the low elevation (only 1.6 degrees above the horizon). The signal alone however is proof enough that no collision occurred!
I did some quick calc's on that first distance you mentioned (500 m): 1,640 feet or 1/3 mile or 5-1/2 football fields. That indeed was a close call.
What is really astounding in all of this is the fact that someone is able to keep track of all those satellites, space junk and other debris - and that they notify whoever needs to know about the possible or impending collisions.
Question: What is happening to this particular piece of debris? Is its orbit degrading and will it eventually burn up? Or does someone else have to worry about it hitting their satellite?
SiriusCreations
Admiral (Administrator)
Joined: Aug 26, 2007
Member#: 18704
Posts: 4419
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Posted:
Wed Mar 31, 2010 1:22 am Post subject:
Good news.
I hope my blowing the debris away helped a bit.
And tnx for the update. _________________ That's the beauty of music. They can't take that away from you. (Andy Dufresne)
Sirius' Concerts NUTs & RATs
segellion
Lieutenant
Joined: Mar 08, 2009
Member#: 24779
Posts: 110
Location: British Columbia
Posted:
Sun Apr 04, 2010 8:15 am Post subject:
Hey guys, just sending a message out in the middle of my road-trip. I am currently in Georgia as of day 2 on my way to Cape Canaveral Florida for STS-131.
Lucky, lucky you, Seg. We space nuts are so envious.
Here's to a perfect launch and that you get some great photos. Have a blast!
AK-Mal_Owner
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: Jan 07, 2004
Member#: 4415
Posts: 292
Posted:
Mon Apr 05, 2010 12:37 pm Post subject:
Hope you made it Seg... it was a beautiful launch. Got up at 5am just so I could watch it online. Reminds me I need to make sure the date for the July launch is still on since that's the one I'm planning on.
-tg/akm
segellion
Lieutenant
Joined: Mar 08, 2009
Member#: 24779
Posts: 110
Location: British Columbia
Posted:
Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:42 am Post subject:
Hey I just got back last night.. what an absolutely insane experience. It probably would have been less stressful if I didn't drive. I took some long exposure photos of the shuttle.. quite an amazing experience. These photos were taken from the Visitor Complex, the 2nd closest place available for viewing. I paid 50 bucks for a ticket.
.. quite an amazing experience. These photos were taken from the Visitor Complex, the 2nd closest place available for viewing. I paid 50 bucks for a ticket.
Pure AWESOMENESS, Seg!!!!!
Incredible photos. Thanks for letting us see them.
I didn't realize you had to pay. Thanks for that tip.
You said that's the "2nd closest place". What's the 1st (for visitors, not NASA workers)?
segellion
Lieutenant
Joined: Mar 08, 2009
Member#: 24779
Posts: 110
Location: British Columbia
Posted:
Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:25 am Post subject:
The first closest place is the Nasa causeway. Unfortunately tickets are drawn at random.. so it's like winning the lottery, I couldn't get the causeway tickets.
Of course the best place to view the shuttle would be the nasa benches where astronauts family, administrators and press members sit. But those benches are not available to the public.
The causeway tickets are more expensive then the $50 tickets I got. Only by about 10 bucks though.
you can get tickets through ebay or a travel agency but they are a lot more expensive.
j2brown
Commodore
Joined: Feb 22, 2002
Member#: 9
Posts: 3188
Location: Sterling, VA
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AK-Mal_Owner 
NessySheep 
Albi 
SiriusCreations 
We have just received a very clear telemetry signal from the satellite although we were unfortunately unable to decode any data due to the low elevation (only 1.6 degrees above the horizon). The signal alone however is proof enough that no collision occurred! 
segellion 
j2brown 
