[Az-Geocaching] CONTOUR Spacecraft was lost, then.......
listserv@azgeocaching.com
listserv@azgeocaching.com
Fri, 16 Aug 2002 22:28:23 -0700 (PDT)
The story was on the news (ch 12) tonight, when they said that (nobody
could find the spacecraft) until "observers" on Kitt Peak located it,
I thought immediately of you, Jim, and was hoping to see an on the air
interview!
Trisha "Lightning"
waiting for transporter technology to be perfected....or Warp drive
first!
On Fri, 16 August 2002, Jim Scotti wrote:
>
> I hear this spacecraft failure is being blamed on geocaching after a
> local
> park official found a suspicious tupperware container marked with the
> geocaching website only 7.6 miles from the launch pad....
>
> Seriously, it's too bad it looks like the CONTOUR spacecraft has been
> lost.
> It was a great opportunity to learn more about comets.
Unfortunately,
> we
> have not yet perfected spaceflight - when we do, I'll look forward to
> geocaching on Mars!
>
> Jim.
>
> On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, Jim Stamm wrote:
>
> > I know this is OT, but interesting never-the-less:
> > >
> > >On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, Ed Cannon wrote:
> > >
> > >> "CONTOUR Spacecraft Possibly Destroyed, NASA
Says"
> > >>
> > >> "... [CONTOUR Mission Director Robert] Farquhar
said late Friday
> that
> > >> images from a ground-based telescope of two unknown
objects about
> 250
> > >> kilometers apart appeared to be pieces of the
comet-chasing
> craft. He
> > >> said more investigation was needed to confirm the
suspicion and
> that a
> > >> concerted search effort would continue at least
through Monday in
> the
> > >> meantime. ...
> > >>
> > >> "In a teleconference with reporters Friday
evening, Farquhar said
> the
> > >> craft's engines had almost certainly fired and that it
was no
> longer
> > >> in Earth orbit."
> > >>
> > >> Source:
> > >>
> > >> <a
href="http://mail.brasher.com//jump/http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/contour_telecon_020816.html">http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/contour_telecon_020816.html</a>
> > >
> > >
> > Then, one of ours posted:
> > >
> > >As the observer who got the images of the spacecraft, it's
> certainly a sad
> > >day for comet research. Our images (in the following URL)
show two
> trails
> > >rather than the one expected, so something catastrophic
must have
> happened.
> > >Previous spacecraft, like NEAR had two trails as well as the
> booster was
> > >ejected, but I guess that was not supposed to happen to
CONTOUR. I
> wonder
> > >what the two pieces are? The spacecraft was at about the
-3% of
> from nominal
> > >burn location, so the engine burn was completed or nearly
so.
> > >
> > ><a
href="http://mail.brasher.com//jump/http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/contour.html">http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/contour.html</a>
> > ><a
href="http://mail.brasher.com//jump/http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/Jeff/contour.jpg">http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/Jeff/contour.jpg</a>
> > >
> > >The first URL describes the image, the second is the image.
The
> spacecraft
> > >is in a very dense star field near the Galactic plane, so
in order
> to see it,
> > >I subtracted the 2nd image from the first so the first
image is the
> white
> > >pair, the second is the dark pair and the residual signal
from the
> field
> > >stars appear as conjoined black/white pairs since they don't
> perfectly
> > >subtract out.
> > >
> > >Jim Scotti
> > >Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
jscotti@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu
> > >University of Arizona
> > >Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
> <a
href="http://mail.brasher.com//jump/http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti">http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti</a>/
> > >
> >
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> >
>
> Jim Scotti
> Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
jscotti@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu
> University of Arizona
> Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
> <a
href="http://mail.brasher.com//jump/http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti">http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti</a>/
>
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>
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