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Science Forum Index » Space Forum » MER Spirit: any info on bouncing?
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| Gary W. Swearingen |
 Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:43 pm |
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Guest
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Reporters asked about the bouncing the first couple of days and were
told: "Real Soon, Now", but I've heard nothing since, except a mention
of the final resting attitude (on an edge, I guess supported by a
couple rows of bags instead a face of bags) before bag deflation. And
some very sketchy info about the the vaunted wind-countering rocket
barely getting the horizontal speed low enough to avoid bag failure.
Anybody heard anything about the bouncing and/or side-rocket? Or why
the info in not forthcoming? How high? How often? How far? And the
horizontal speed at first bounce?
I bugs me that reporters never ask "exectly why can't you tell us now"
when the guys with the info aren't ready to share it.
It also interested me that one JPL person said that the inertial
navigator knew were it was in inertial space real well (but didn't
give any numbers in their typically uninformative manner), but that
they didn't know as well where the topographical (? map) data was in
inertial space. E.g., they don't have well-know intertal coordinates
of orbiter-mapped features like nearby craters. This is (or was until
recently) a problem with GPS vs Earth maps; map features a real
accurate with respect to other features on the same map, but you
didn't know where the map is in the global coordinates that GPS uses.
But I'm suprised that NASA hasn't figured out where the Mars maps are
in inertial space, with all the radio-tracking they've done of various
spacecraft, etc.
BTW, is there any forum in which insiders give their commentary? A
blog or informal reports or something? The NASA, JPL, and commercial
"space" sites have precious little information, IMO, on the MER
mission. I very much enjoyed a kind of diary from a ISS-naut I saw
recently. |
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