Author Topic: Stardust Returns Safely (Read 460 times)

Widewing · « **on:** January 15, 2006, 04:01:27 PM »

Stardust story

I for one, am very happy the recovery was successful. I designed the sophisticated acceleration switches that deployed the recovery drogue and parachute. In 2004, the Genesis probe crashed due to the parachute not deploying. Investigation revealed that the switches (Lockheed calls them "gravity switches") had been installed backwards... They only sense deceleration in one direction.

Both Genesis and Stardust shared a common recovery system. However, a different team at Lockheed-Martin Space Systems assembled each probe. Back in July-August, I spent two weeks working with Joe Vellinga of LMSS, his staff and engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory testing, retesting ad nauseum other switches manufactured with those on Stardust. They were trying to establish a higher comfort level. You can imagine that after the Genesis debacle, the Stardust team was sweating out the safe landing of this baby. Our extensive testing showed that if the switches were installed correctly, Stardust would have a good chute..

So after 7 years in deep space, having traveled 4.6 billion kilometers, it was very satisfying for me to see my hardware work the way it was designed to.

Let's hope what they brought back was worth the wait and $212 million tax payer dollars.

My regards,

Widewing

Debonair · « **Reply #1 on:** January 15, 2006, 04:22:33 PM »

Alien Sno-cone.
I hope its 'grape'

JTs · « **Reply #2 on:** January 15, 2006, 05:18:18 PM »

212 tax payer dollars= chump change to the u.s. government. it was well spent

Nilsen · « **Reply #3 on:** January 15, 2006, 05:20:58 PM »

if the comet dust smells like fart then you can tell that aliens lived there

wtg btw

eskimo2 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 15, 2006, 05:24:54 PM »

Maverick · « **Reply #5 on:** January 15, 2006, 06:01:50 PM »

Good deal Widewing. I hope they got a good sample and it gives them some great informatoin.

~~on a job well done.~~

Vulcan · « **Reply #6 on:** January 15, 2006, 06:44:54 PM »

take me! take me!

Sparks · « **Reply #7 on:** January 16, 2006, 02:34:20 AM »

WTG Wide wing

What boggles my mind is the maths .......

Fire this thing off a spinning ball which is itself spinning round another big ball with lots of others, fly 3.5 years catapulting off various other large object gravity fields, meet up with and fly through another fast moving and very small target, fly another 3.5 years back using various gravity fields and land in a specific piece of desert so you can pick it up ........ HOLY **** !!! I struggle to work out my overtime ......

eskimo2 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2006, 08:12:09 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Sparks
WTG Wide wing

What boggles my mind is the maths .......

Fire this thing off a spinning ball which is itself spinning round another big ball with lots of others, fly 3.5 years catapulting off various other large object gravity fields, meet up with and fly through another fast moving and very small target, fly another 3.5 years back using various gravity fields and land in a specific piece of desert so you can pick it up ........ HOLY **** !!! I struggle to work out my overtime ......

You just gotta be sure to line up all the decimals...

eskimo

lasersailor184 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 16, 2006, 10:29:23 AM »

How would you have reacted if after 7 years of wait, the parachute didn't deploy?

Furball · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2006, 01:24:07 PM »

how did you react when genesis didnt deploy?

LePaul · « **Reply #11 on:** January 16, 2006, 02:35:05 PM »

One of my school friends is on the Starduster team, he's with the math gurus who plot and computer the navigational stuff.

wtg, I was hoping someone would have links to the re-entry video. Fastest re-entry ever

Widewing · « **Reply #12 on:** January 16, 2006, 05:47:32 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Furball
how did you react when genesis didnt deploy?

We were very disappointed.... Of course we didn't know for some time why the chute hadn't deployed. Once we had a chance to look at the installation, it was obvious what had happened. At that point we could only hope that they were correctly installed on Stardust.

After a lot of work on the part of LMSS and the JPL, we were certain that they were properly oriented to sense re-entry. Nonetheless, after a giant flub like Genesis, there's always that nagging doubt..

My regards,

Widewing

bozon · « **Reply #13 on:** January 17, 2006, 05:37:49 AM »

WTG widewing.
Too bad about Genesis though. That one was of great interest to me.

Seems like a lot of space missions were struck by bad luck in recent years - Columbia, the europian mars mission, Genesis, Astro-E2, just to name a few. It's a hard and complicated business, some luck is always needed.

Bozon