Because there's still nothing big going on, where big is defined as more than one news service talking about it.
Parker Solar Probe Updates for the Second Time
On Dec. 27, I updated the previous story to add the Parker solar probe was in contact, downloading the status that it had successfully conducted (and survived!) its close approach to the sun.
In that same story, it was mentioned that a more detailed report would be sent back to Earth on January 1st. That data came down as expected on New Year's Day.
On Wednesday (Jan. 1), mission control at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland began receiving the Parker Solar Probe's first telemetry — or housekeeping data — that confirms Parker's systems and science instruments are "healthy and operating normally" after its historic rendezvous with the sun, NASA shared in an update on Thursday (Jan. 2).
"All is looking good with the spacecraft systems and instrument operations," Michael Buckley, a spokesperson at JHUAPL, which oversees the Parker Solar Probe mission, told Space.com in an email. "It really is a remarkable spacecraft!"
Briefly, the probe survived with no problems at all; the data indicates every instrument behaved properly, the spacecraft had executed the commands that had been programmed into its flight computers before the flyby and all instruments report being healthy.
The measured data is still to be downloaded but no source I could find would say when to expect that.
A visualization of the Parker Solar Probe in front of the sun. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)
Update to SpaceX Flight to be the First Crewed Orbital Mission over the Poles
Remember talk about
this mission? On August 12,
SpaceX announced they will provide launch and space hardware for the first
human flight that will go into a polar orbit. The private mission is being led by a Chinese-born cryptocurrency
entrepreneur named Chun Wang, and he will be joined by a polar explorer, a
roboticist, and a filmmaker whom he has befriended in recent years. The
projected launch date back in August was said to be "around the solstice" but
not exactly which solstice.
We learned today from the Payload newsletter that the mission has the mission, called Fram2, is expecting to launch No Earlier Than this spring. To be pedantic, that's an equinox not a solstice:
The crew of Fram2 from left to right: Rabea Rogge, Eric Philips, Chun Wang, and Jannicke Mikkelsen. Image credit: Fram2 on X.
(as an aside, I had completely forgotten that Fram2 is the mission name, and that it's named after a Norwegian research ship named Fram. I honestly thought "it's named after an oil filter brand?"
That
Payload Newsletter
is worth taking a look at. It's a couple of screens of "What to Expect in
2025"
I cannot comprehend the orbital science to get the solar probe to a specified distance of a nuclear furnace. So at the limit of my knowledge the question arises; how do they know the actual distance of the probe to the center of that furnace?
ReplyDeleteI reckon this is in the realm of, this is accurate until we know better. The science is correct for now.
What is the significance of humans in polar orbit? Is it that it is a first? Is it that a polar orbit is more difficult to achieve?
That first one is a bit much before coffee - I'll have to see if I can find anything. The second is easier; yes, it's one of the (must be rapidly disappearing) "never been done before" flights. The previous highest latitude a manned spacecraft has flown to is 65.1 degrees, done by the Soviets in 1963.
DeleteDistance deduced by conversion of db into units of distance. That's my guess.
ReplyDelete