Well Grail-A anyway, Grail-B is due to make its orbital manoeuvre today:
First of Nasa's Grail gravity twins enters Moon orbit
Order of Kilopi
Well Grail-A anyway, Grail-B is due to make its orbital manoeuvre today:
First of Nasa's Grail gravity twins enters Moon orbit
Order of Kilopi
Woooo! Success! I watched with my dad!
Administrator
GOD: Right! NASA -- you shall have a task to make them an example in these dark times.
NASA: Good idea, oh Lord!
GOD: 'Course it's a good idea!
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
Been getting lots of nice press on NBC and CNN.
Established Member
Excellent. The Moon is becoming more and more interesting every day
Order of Kilopi
And it's confirmed that both Grail satellites are in orbit. I understand that NASA are excited, though I think their message to Roscosmos:
"We've got one.
We've got two.
We've got two more probes than you!"
Was a little uncalled for.
Order of Kilopi
This.Originally Posted by Swift
GOD: Right! NASA -- you shall have a task to make them an example in these dark times.
NASA: Good idea, oh Lord!
GOD: 'Course it's a good idea!
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
Established Member
Your post sure was.... Was a little uncalled for.
I don't think, as professionals, NASA (JPL'er or otherwise) should or would revel in the tragic loss of Phobos-Grunt's mission (and the probe, in the next couple of weeks). It's a monumental waste of time, talent, money and other resources that could, at any time, befall any nation's space program.
CJSF
"In the nightgown of the sullen moon, How the windows lean into the room, In the nightgown of the sullen moon."
-They Might Be Giants
Order of Kilopi
Did 'NASA' really say that? That is just beyond ugly!
Established Member
Everything I've read reflects "relief" on the part of JPL and NASA. I doubt there would be any type of gloating going on, though Garrison may know something different. My hope is his/her smiley means this is intended to be a joke.
Last edited by Usher; 2012-Jan-02 at 05:06 AM. Reason: gender-neutralized
Administrator
I think Usher is almost certainly correct and it was a joke. Let's let it go. Thanks,
Order of Kilopi
If I really, really need to explain that comment was a joke I may lose my faith in the basic intelligence of other posters here at BAUT...
Established Member
I think it was obvious it was a joke. I just feel it was in bad taste and uncalled for.
Moving on.
I "watched" the insertion burns with Eyes on the Solar System - very awesome. The Grail module was well done. Congrats, NASA and JPL!
CJSF
"In the nightgown of the sullen moon, How the windows lean into the room, In the nightgown of the sullen moon."
-They Might Be Giants
Order of Kilopi
And they are certainly going to be busy with Grail, Dawn, MESSENGER, Opportunity and(fingers crossed) Curiosity all operating and sending back copious quantities of data.
Established Member
Is the Deep Space Network (DSN) used for "near" Earth missions (like LRO and GRAIL, etc.) or are there other listening stations that handle that, freeing the DSN for the other missions?
CJSF
"In the nightgown of the sullen moon, How the windows lean into the room, In the nightgown of the sullen moon."
-They Might Be Giants
Established Member
Could we please have better spacecraft names? That GRAIL acronym is ridiculous. The same applies to MRO and LRO... Nothing exciting... spacecraft had better names in the past.
Established Member
Well, for some reason the "cooler" names for the GRAIL spacecraft were not announced yesterday, as was anticipated. Hopefully there wasn't some sort of nepotism or upper management override involved. At least NASA Mars rovers have continued the naming tradition (even if Curiosity seemed awkward at first). I quite agree, though. MRO and LRO are rather uninspiring names.
CJSF
"In the nightgown of the sullen moon, How the windows lean into the room, In the nightgown of the sullen moon."
-They Might Be Giants
Established Member
It was amusing, and somewhat predictable, that Fox News had a headline on their site that the Moon probes had landed.
Order of Kilopi
Since they are probing the interior of the moon perhaps Cavor or Selenite or maybe Wells for the Grail probes? A good name is certainly a plus when it comes to PR problem is it's hard to come up with one that someone won't complain about.
Insert awesome title here
Cavor would also be fitting given the gravity defying spacecraft that he built.
Order of Kilopi
Thank you
JPL is in a strange mood at the moment - very little to build, but an ever increasing portfolio of flying hardware to look after. It's tough times on lab.
LRO has its own ground station at White Sands, NM - although occasionally it does use the DSN. The GRAIL's use the DSN regularly.
Established Member
That's great Doug! I used to be an avid user of the "old" and awesome Space Simulator page when I "discovered" it in grad school, and this is a more than worthy successor. It is nice to see tools like this, and I shamelessly plug them to my friends and family and co-workers. Keep up the awesome work!
CJSF
"In the nightgown of the sullen moon, How the windows lean into the room, In the nightgown of the sullen moon."
-They Might Be Giants
Order of Kilopi
all acronyms are ridiculous. but the people that create them think they are being clever, so whatever.
Order of Kilopi
There's really nothing stupid about the names LRO, MRO, SDO etc - they're simple acronyms of accurate descriptions of the spacecraft. Even things like STEREO, IBEX etc - they work, and they're descriptive. I also like Juno and Dawn ( just names, not acronyms ) MESSENGER, however, and OSIRIS-REX are just dumb.
Giving them 'cute' names just for the sake of it is entirely pointless exercise. It's exceptionally hard to find names that please all, offend none, and yet remain pertinent to the issue at hand.
Order of Kilopi
You are? Dude, that's awesome! Pass on my thanks as well!Thank you
Established Member
Mercury was the messenger of the gods. Other than the retrofitting of the acronym, it's a perfectly cromulent name for the spacecraft.
Personally, I think the Grails should be named after twins. Thing 1 and Thing 2 might not be especially creative, but it would make for some interesting conversations.
Order of Kilopi
Quoth Noble Homer, "D'oh!"
Insert awesome title here
In the same way that Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to reach the Moon.
Established Member
It's been a week (sorry, I was busy with other concerns) and no one has mentioned Ebb and Flow?
tsk, tsk.
Order of Kilopi
I like the names, and I want to draw fanart of them now.
Established Member
The names are better than the previous ones, and really fit...
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote