Waaaay TAN: Less than 24 hours to go!

[Guest guest]

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

--

 

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[Guest guest]

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

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

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!

[Guest guest]

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 *