A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#2Thank you for pointing this out. Non-paywalled info, plus even more & nicer graphics:
https://nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/overview/index
don't miss
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#3The orbital physics used is always impressive.
I assume some velocity adjustment is done by the drone to intersect with the asteroids? Or are the orbits that precise?
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#4Feels like there should be some good open source tools by now to plot optimal orbital paths and speed and slowing down.
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#5The orbital physics used is always impressive. I assume some velocity adjustment is done by the drone to intersect with the asteroids? Or are the orbits that precise?
They are very precise. Take note of this video, recreating one of the real missions that took place four decades (!) ago. It recreates the orbit in Kerbal Space Program with a mod called Principia that enables N-body simulation using original mission specs and calculations.
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#6How feasible is it to build/launch your own probe? A la backyard astronomy.
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#7The path of this probe to get those encounters looks like magic. How do they find these?
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#8It seems kind of crazy that they would visit the Greeks, then do another flyby of Earth in order to visit the Trojans. I wonder what the cost-benefit analysis was of doing that versus just sending separate probes to each of those (which presumably would need a lot less fuel)?
Is this one of those things where this really is the best and cheapest option and my intuition of orbital mechanics is just wrong?
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#9How feasible is it to build/launch your own probe? A la backyard astronomy.
[deleted]
Re: A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly
#10The orbital physics used is always impressive. I assume some velocity adjustment is done by the drone to intersect with the asteroids? Or are the orbits that precise?
The spacecraft will make corrections with its onboard thrusters over the course of the mission.