Orion snaps 'selfie' with the Moon as it prepares for distant retrograde orbit
- Reference: 1669377967
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/11/25/orion/
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DRO provides a highly stable orbit requiring little fuel, allowing NASA to fully test Orion's systems in a deep space environment far from Earth for an extended amount time.
The orbit is so large that it will take Orion six days to complete half of a revolution, at which point the spacecraft will exit orbit for the journey back home.
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The Orion capsules are designed to be partially reusable. While this iteration is likely headed for a museum if it returns in one piece, NASA hopes to salvage the avionics systems for Artemis II, due to launch in 2024. Otherwise the team will be able to gather a lot of data on what can actually be reused (like the heat shield) once the test flight is complete.
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Artemis I mission manager Mike Sarafin has previously described Orion's debut flight as a "true stress test." He said: "Without crew aboard the first mission, DRO allows Orion to spend more time in deep space for a rigorous mission to ensure spacecraft systems, like guidance, navigation, communication, power, thermal control and others are ready to keep astronauts safe on future crewed missions."
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Orion photograph of lunar surface (Credit: NASA)
Orion has made hay on its journey to DRO, [5]coming as close as 130km from the regolith and taking some fantastic shots with its optical navigation camera of the Moon's far side, which is never seen from Earth due to the satellite's tidal locking.
The pictures from Day 6 of the mission have been uploaded to the [6]Artemis I Flickr account .
[7]Japanese cubesat sends home pics from the far side of the Moon
[8]Artemis I isn't just a test run – there's science to be done
[9]Orion reaches the Moon, buzzes surface, gets ready to orbit
[10]NASA's Artemis mission finally launches after faulty Ethernet switch delayed countdown
Yesterday the spacecraft completed its sixth and final outbound trajectory correction burn at 21:52 UTC before entering DRO, firing the European Service Module's auxiliary engines for 17 seconds to propel Orion at 8.9 feet per second. While in orbit, three orbital maintenance burns will keep Orion on course.
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Orion 'selfie' with the Moon (Credit: NASA)
NASA took the opportunity for an Orion "selfie" with the Moon using a camera mounted on one of its solar arrays at 03:57 UTC, illustrating the immense distances involved. The DRO insertion burn is scheduled to take place at 21:52 UTC today. ®
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[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/11/25/orionmoonsurface.jpg
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/21/orion_reaches_the_moon_buzzes/
[6] https://flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/albums/72177720303788800/with/52516951762/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/24/equeelus_moon_pics/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/18/artemis_i_science/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/21/orion_reaches_the_moon_buzzes/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/16/artemis_launches_despite_ethernet_outage/
[11] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/11/25/orionselfie.jpg
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: And Wallace wanted Shaun to bring some cheese back
As there are no animals on the moon (except the odd rogue Clanger), is it actually made of vegan cheese-free cheese substitute?
Re: And Wallace wanted Shaun to bring some cheese back
What about the soup dragon?
Does half an orbit
Count as an orbit, if they don't use all of it?
Can they get their money back for the unused portion?
Re: Does half an orbit
Let's hope the no return policy does not apply to the astronauts.
What are them horizontal lines on the moon's surface? Irrigation canals for the Nazi base, or did NASA's bubble jet run out of ink?
Re: Does half an orbit
Chemtrails
Re: Does half an orbit
1 yes
2 no
Addendum 1 in principle. Should they not do the orbit exit burn (whatever the correct name is) they'd continue around the moon. Hence orbit.
Contrast Orion's journey with Apollo
Computers, of course, but remember Apollo astronauts having to constantly use the sextant to verify/determine position and orientation? Now we have a (poorly positioned) star tracker to do all that automatically (at least, when the thrusters aren't firing). And cameras. LOTS of cameras. Solar panels to (I assume) replace fuel cells (which may make a return as live astronauts need oxygen).
While I always got the sense that Apollo, though a huge effort, was just a tad bit *beyond* the bleeding edge of technology, Artemis seems to have used what we have learned since then to be more comfortably in the technological "sweet spot". Here's wishing NASA a successful mission and many more.
Re: Contrast Orion's journey with Apollo
One of the main lessons from the Apollo missions was that reliability is more important than capabilities. That's why they still use CPUs from the turn of the century, they know exactly how they work and more importantly how they fail.
Re: Contrast Orion's journey with Apollo
And even more important than knowing how they fail, is having access to hardened versions that are far less prone to the failures in the first place. One important failure mode is that inbound cosmic radiation can cause random state changes in circuits - and the smaller the circuits (c.f. modern CPUs using ever smaller feature sizes for higher speeds) the bigger the problem. So using older electronics with larger feature sizes, and encapsulated with a view to reducing such radiation impacts, means less risk of a random state change which could lead to failure.
Re: Contrast Orion's journey with Apollo
"Lots of cameras"
Because cameras are CHEAP these days and return pretty pictures that get people excited about space.
Interesting fact: The cameras on the tips of the solar panels are GoPro 4s onna stick bracket
On the 7th day
Six days doesn't seem a very long term test to me, why didn't they give it a whole (or 1.5) orbit? How long are the human Sean and Snoopy going to be in there?
Re: On the 7th day
They needed the soundstage for the new Marvel movie.
(Joking - Marvel movies aren't real)
Reg standards
130km at 9.8 ft/s - so no chance if an embarrassing units cock-up then !
Re: Reg standards
That'd be 5914.4677 Brontosauruses at 39.9389 Brontosauruses per hour then
Re: Reg standards
Is that imperial hours or US?
And Wallace wanted Shaun to bring some cheese back
As he has ran out of it.