Thursday, August 29, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Spitzer Space Telescope
2003-038A
360 l of LHeI (about 45 kg?)
The SIRTF 0.85-meter Space Infrared Telescope Facility will be managed by JPL for NASA. It is built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale with the cryogenic telescope built by Ball Aerospace. SIRTF will be launched by Delta into solar orbit. Orbit is 371.9d, 0.992 x 1.032 AU x 1.14 deg (Sun center)
0.988 x 1.028 if minus Rsun: enter to O S 147700000 x 153680000 x 1.1 VP = 30.194 VA = 29.024
Escape vel at 200 km is sqrt 121.19
On Aug 25 0600, Earth is at 0.8892 -0.4411 -0.1912 0.008428 0.01353 0.005868 (J2000). Earth orbit has VP = 30.208 VA = 29.220 Current vel 0.01699 AU/d = 29.41 radius = 1.0108 Vinf = (220, 108, 580) to get to tabulated orbit Means V = 629m/s, C3 = 0.40 km2/s2.
* W Sun 1 27827U 03027A 3237.25000000 0.00000000 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 14 2 27827 0.0069 315.8962 0274081 253.5337119.4841 km 149125106.15 Earth pos * W Sun 1 27827U 03027A 3237.25000000 0.00000000 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 14 2 27827 1.1282 331.5068 0199224 272.2777 85.5373 km 151394779.06 Guess at SIRTF orbit
After 2.6 years in a trailing solar orbit SIRTF will be 0.32 AU from Earth. (48 M km)
Launch mass is 923.5 kg.
Total dry mass 851 kg. Cover 6 kg 50.4 kg He, 15.6 kg N2.
Octagonal spacecraft bus, telescope assembly, solar panel assembly.
The telescope is launched warm with only the instrument package inside the cryogenic dewar. The optics are cooled on orbit to around 5K by radiation and contact with the cryo boiling off from the dewar. The instruments remain at less than 2K.
The IRAC camera has a set of 256 x 256 pixel arrays with a 5 arcmin field of view, imaging at 3.5, 4.5, 6.3 and 8.0 microns.
The IRS has a moderate (R=600) resolution 10-20 and 20-40 micron channel, and a long slit (R=50) channel covering 5 to 40 microns. It makes observations following on from ISO's SWS instrument.
The MIPS is a longer wavelength imager (see table). It also has R=20 low res spectroscopy in the 50-100 micron range, following up ISO's LWS instrument.
Full Height: 4.45 m
CTA Height: 2.59 m
Solar Shield Height: 4.32 m
Full Depth: 2.11 m (measured from solar shield to spacecraft front)
After launch, the star tracker failed to acquire and Spitzer entered safemode from T+1h26m to T+14h40m.
| SIRTF | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 Aug 25 | 0535:39.2 | Launch by Delta 7920H | CC SLC17B |
| T+1:15 SRM 1-6 out | |||
| T+1:19 SRM 7-9 on | |||
| T+1:22 SRM 1-6 sep | |||
| T+2:35 SRM 7-9 out | |||
| T+2:40 SRM 7-9 sep | |||
| T+4:24 Stage 1 MECO | |||
| T+4:34 Stage 1 sep | |||
| T+4:39 SES-1 | |||
| T+4:44 Fairing | |||
| 0542 | T+7:17 SECO-1 | 166 x 167 x 31.5 | |
| 0613 | T+40:25s SES-2 | ||
| 0618 | T+45:06 SECO-2 | 170 x -1987709 x 31.6 | |
| 0623 | T+50:00s Stage 2 sep | 172 x -2084426 x 31.5 | |
| C3 = 0.393 DRA 310.98, 31.47 | |||
| T+1:05:23 SES-3 | |||
| 0640 | T+1:05:29 SECO-3 | ||
| T+4110s (Delta) | 2065 x -300891 x 31 | ||
| T+1:11:43 SES-4 | |||
| 0647 | T+1:11:49 SECO-4 | ||
| 2003 Aug 25 | 1625 | Delta Pass EL1:4 | |
| 2003 Aug 25 | 1908 | Pass EL1:4 | |
| 2003 Aug 30 | 0219 | Dust cover eject | |
| 2003 Aug 31 | 1110? | Delta depart Earth sphere 1.5Mkm | |
| 2003 Aug 31 | Aperture door open (prior to 0230Z) | ||
| 2003 Sep 7 | 1605 | Depart Earth sphere 1.5Mkm | |
| 2003 Nov 15 | 2100 | 2P/Encke closest approach at 33.59Mkm | |
| 2009 May 15 | 2211 | LHe depleted, standby mode | |
| 2009 May 15 | Begin warm mission | ||
Payload:
- IRS Infrared Spectrometer
- IRAC IR Array Camera (Fazio)
- MIPS Multiband Imaging Photometer
- Cryogenic dewar
- 0.85-m telescope
- 1.5m antenna
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Sunday, August 4, 2013
USA-125
1996-038A
A classified satellite was launched by a Titan 4 from Cape Canaveral in Jul 1996. Launch of the venerable K-2 vehicle had been delayed for some years; it delivered its payload to a 318 km, 55.0 deg initial orbit. A kick motor was later cataloged in a 383 x 14072 km x 55.4 deg orbit. The payload is thought to be a QUASAR communications satellite in Molniya-type orbit.
| USA 125 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 Jul 3 | 0030:02 | Launch by Titan K-2 | CC |
| Titan SRM sep | |||
| Titan Stage 1 sep | |||
| 0039? | Titan Stage 2 MECO | ||
| 0039? | Titan stage 2 sep | ||
| 90.4 292 x 300 x 54.9 (UN) | |||
| 1996 Jul 3? | 0135? | PKM fired | 300 x 14200? x 55.4 |
| 0140? | PKM sep | ||
| 0200? | Fiducial inc change | ||
| 1999 Dec 16 | (C) | 383 x 14072 x 55.4 | |
| 2010 Oct 9 | 716.56 363 x 39931 x 64.0 | ||
| 2011? | Reentered | ||
Friday, August 2, 2013
Gravity Probe B
2004-014A
The Gravity Probe B satellite was designed to carry the Stanford relativity gyroscope experiment, measuring Einsteinian gravitomagnetic 'frame dragging'.
Prime contractor is officially Stanford. The GP-B spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale, with the special dewar constructed by Lockheed Martin/Palo Alto and the relativity experiment developed by Stanford. The mission is managed by NASA-MSFC. Launch is by Delta 7920-10. Mass of GP-B is 3145 kg (alloc 3322 kg). Probably 350 kg of He so 2805 kg dry. Size is 6.43 l 2.64 dia with 4.0? span across panels.
Orbit 639 x 659 x 90.007
GP-B will observe IM Peg (V=5).
GP-B operations:
IOC 40-60 days Science mission phase 13-16 months Calibration phase 2-3 months
The GP-B relativity mission has completed collecting science data. Its superconducting gyroscopes were held at low temperatures in a liquid helium dewar during the primary mission which began in the spring of 2004. On August 15, the satellite was switched to collect calibration data, moving its pointing from its primary target IM Peg to look at a variety of other bright stars in the final days before the helium ran out. To the suprise of the Stanford-based science team, the dewar remained cold for three weeks longer than expected, allowing extra calibrations to be done. On September 26, GP-B went back to IM Peg to collect yet more science data, but the helium finally did run out three days later, and the gyros began to spin down from 4300 revs per minute to only 120 rpm. When data analysis is complete in early 2007, the GP-B team expect to be able to determine the general relativistic rotation of local space-time caused by the Earth's rotation over the past year.
GP-B was placed in hibernation in May 2006 pending any future experiment funding.
| GP-B | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 Apr 20 | 1657:24 | Launch by Delta 7920 | V SLC2W |
| T+1:26 SRM sep | |||
| T+2:11 SRM 7-9 sep | |||
| T+4:23 Stage 1 MECO | |||
| T+4:31 Stage 1 sep | |||
| T+4:37 SES-1 | |||
| T+4:41 Fairing sep | |||
| 1708:40 | T+11:16 SECO-1 | 167 x 652 x 90.014 | |
| 1759:02 | T+1:01:38 SES-2 17s | ||
| 1759:18 | T+1:01:54 SECO-2 | 637 x 659 x 90.011 | |
| T+1:07 Solar panel deloy | |||
| 1812:24 | T+1:15:00 Stage 2 sep | ||
| T+1:34 SES-3 evasive 4.8s | 298 x 635 x 90.41 | ||
| T+1:42 SES-4 depletion | 182 x 631 x 94.56 | ||
| 2004 Apr 21 | 97.59 641 x 645 x 90.01 | ||
| 2005 Sep 29 | Dewar depletion, end of primary mission | ||
| 2006 May | Hibernation mode, end of mission | ||
| 2006 Sep | Preps for use by AF Academy from training, research | ||
| 2007 May | Beginning of USAFA use | ||
| 2009 | GP-B returned to Stanford control | ||
| 2010 Nov | GP-B dormant but operational | ||
| 2010 Dec 8 | Decommissioned | ||
Payload:
- Aperture cover, hinged
- Liquid helium dewar, 2441l.
- Gyroscopes (4), 1.8K cyro
- Quartz Telescope 14cm, f = 3.81m, mirror 0.142m dia
- Electrostatic levitation ssytem
- GPS receivers, 2