Guest guest Posted December 24, 2004 Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 For all you folks interested in my spacey stuff... Some of you know about what I do in real life, and the NASA mission that I work on (the Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan), and the European Space Agency Probe (Huygens) that we are carrying. By this time tomorrow night, we will know if the Huygens Probe successfully separated from the Cassini Orbiter and if it's headed down to Saturn's Moon, Titan, and if mother and child are in good health. This is one of our major mission milestones, so it's very exciting in my office these days! This is probably the only time I won't gripe about having to work on Christmas Eve, although I gotta think that all the people who were scheduling our major spacecraft events years ago and laid them on top of major holidays are probably all retired now and not worrying about it themselves! Anyway, so work is where I will be on Christmas Eve, and hopefully a successful probe release will be the best Christmas present we could all have! The timeline of main events goes like this (in Pacific time): 6:55 p.m. we turn the Cassini Orbiter spacecraft to the orientation we need for it to release the Probe (losing communications between the spacecraft and Earth, putting the spacecraft basically into autopilot using pre-loaded instructions because the antenna is pointed the wrong way), and complete that turn at 7:02 p.m. At 7:08 p.m. we release the probe using specially designed springs, and the probe begins it's descent to Titan. The release, however causes Cassini to tumble a bit, which we will control using thrusters (one of the scary things). At 7:17 p.m. the spacecraft stops tumbling and begins to turn so the main antenna faces Earth again. Finally, at 7:30 p.m. the spacecraft is fully pointed back toward Earth and communications are restored. We'll all be pretty tense for about an hour until we know that everybody is alright. Listen for the big cheer at ~7:52 p.m. when we get data playing back. (LOL, if you think this all sounds complicated to you, be glad you weren't me (a non-scientist/non-engineer -- I'm just the program secretary!) having to listen to all the really technical stuff and try to figure it out!) For more info, and to check out the current events and very very cool pictures, go to http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ Keep your fingers and toes crossed that everything goes as scheduled and only good things happen tomorrow night! Cheers!!! Karen -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CRAFT CREATIONS PAGE UPDATED! http://www.geocities.com/karenmchan/creations.html <> <> <> <> <> Karen M. Chan | kmchan | Whatever Happens... Smile! http://www.linkline.com/personal/kmchan/index.html P.O. Box 1390 / La Canada, CA 91012-5390 <> <> <> <> <> * Beautiful skin is just a click away! * * Visit me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant! * * http://www.marykay.com/karenchan * * Contact me for your FREE facial at karenchan * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 24, 2004 Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 For all you folks interested in my spacey stuff... Terrific Karen! I love this stuff!! Thanks for sharing! Keep your fingers and toes crossed that everything goes as scheduled and only good things happen tomorrow night! Keeping them crossed... and I hope the darned reindeer dont get in the way! Have a wonderful Holiday! Blessings! Neysa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 24, 2004 Report Share Posted December 24, 2004 Can I just say... " WAAAAAAAAY COOOL! " Where can I get a job like that? Here's hoping that all goes well. Cheers! Kathleen Petrides The Woobey Queen The Warming Touch, Therapeutic Pillows http://www.woobeyworld.com > [Original Message] > Karen M. Chan <kmchan > RST! List <rst; Oils_Herb_Etc > 12/24/2004 4:02:24 AM > Waaaay TAN: Less than 24 hours to go! > > > For all you folks interested in my spacey stuff... > > Some of you know about what I do in real life, and the NASA mission > that I work on (the Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan), and the > European Space Agency Probe (Huygens) that we are carrying. By this > time tomorrow night, we will know if the Huygens Probe successfully > separated from the Cassini Orbiter and if it's headed down to > Saturn's Moon, Titan, and if mother and child are in good health. > This is one of our major mission milestones, so it's very exciting in > my office these days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 25, 2004 Report Share Posted December 25, 2004 Hi All! Just thought I'd drop you a note to let you know that everything went fine with our probe release tonight. It was pretty exciting. When we finally got telemetry (radio signal) back we were able to determine that the release had gone as planned, as had the recovery from tumble, and turn back to pointing at Earth. Phew! So, I'm still employed -- at least for another couple of days... At the moment, it turns out, Cassini is on the same collision course that we just sent Titan on, and on Dec. 27 we'll do a " deflection maneuver " (firing thrusters to steer the spacecraft) to turn away from Titan and back onto our own course. I heard " that's actually the main biggie, turning back away from Titan so we don't collide with it " . Okay okay. One biggie at a time, please. Huygens is now in a 3-week freefall (there are no steering mechanisms at all on the probe, and only an internal timer to wake it up in 20 days to make the parachutes go) to Titan, and if all continues as planned on January 14 we will get data back from the probe about Titan. Not likely you'll hear much about tonight's event on tv news (maybe NBC), but it should be in print papers as AP and Reuters wire services had writers in the house tonight. Merry merry!! Karen http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov >For all you folks interested in my spacey stuff... -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CRAFT CREATIONS PAGE UPDATED! http://www.geocities.com/karenmchan/creations.html <> <> <> <> <> Karen M. Chan | kmchan | Whatever Happens... Smile! http://www.linkline.com/personal/kmchan/index.html P.O. Box 1390 / La Canada, CA 91012-5390 <> <> <> <> <> * Beautiful skin is just a click away! * * Visit me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant! * * http://www.marykay.com/karenchan * * Contact me for your FREE facial at karenchan * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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