Hello All,

Both the launch of ABL's RS1 orbital rocket from Kodiak island--and the impact of the DART spacecraft on the binary asteroid Didymos/Dimorphos--are scheduled to occur on September 26. Below are updated articles about both events:

https://everydayastronaut.com/maiden-flight-rs1/

https://www.space.com/dart-planetar...ds-test-mission

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NAR #54895 SR

Here is a quick graphic of the DART target for the impact on Monday eve. More can be learned at the NASA DART web site.

Link: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/pdco/index.html#dart


Earl

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Excellent--Thank You for posting the link and the image! Judging by the size of LICIACube's solar panels, we might (the information is likely amongst all of the website's pages; I'll look for it) get live--plus the light/RF signal time delay, of course--video of DART's impact on Dimorphos. But even if that isn't the case, the impact video (in compressed form) will arrive on Earth within a few hours after the event. Also:

Artemis 1 is scheduled--hydrogen leaks and weather permitting--to be launched, maybe, on October 2 (see: https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/09/...is-moon-rocket/ ).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

I was curious as to what we would see 'at impact', and I read somewhere yesterday (and there are probably more details to be found...I just have not checked thoroughly) that the 'image rate' from the impact probe would be one frame per second. So yes, I am hoping that cube 'sister ship' will be collecting a more detailed video of the event.

Should be interesting to view, in any event.

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

DART impact in just about 1 hour.

Live stream: https://www.nasa.gov/content/live-c...st-dart-mission

Porbably a number of other sources for the live stream are available I would suspect.


Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Thank you, Earl--it's only about 5 minutes away now, and both Didymos and Dimorphos are growing on the screen...

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Well, that was interesting! Brief, but interesting. The video from the sister ship, once sent back to earth, should be fantastic.

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

DART hit Dimorphos within 17 meters of its aiming point--well within the "X" (see: https://www.nasa.gov/content/live-c...st-dart-mission )--the light-time signal delay was 38 seconds (plus a few more for processing of each image before it appeared on-screen), so the Didymos/Dimorphos binary asteroid was approximately 7,078,716 miles from Earth at the moment of DART's impact. The video was from DART itself. We haven't seen LICIACube's images yet, but:

The "hitch-hiker" LICIACube spacecraft, supplied by ASI (the Italian Space Agency, see: https://www.jhuapl.edu/PressRelease...ahead-of-impact ) separated from DART on September 11, and it photographed DART's impact and the formation of its impact crater. Dimorphos' orbital period was 11 hours, 55 minutes, before the impact; observations from LICIACube (and from ground-based and space telescopes) will determine how--and how much--DART's impact changed Dimorpho's orbit.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Here is a frame grab still taken from a CNN article showing what it looked like from DART just before impact. I think the last couple of frames sent before impact were closer than this even.

Looked like the last frame had to be sent from very, very close range which is pretty lucky as I think I heard that the closing speed of DART was like 17,000mph and it’s frame rate was only one image per second.

Earl

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

And a Twitter link to a short video from the NASA feed of the last seconds before impact.

Link: https://twitter.com/NASA/status/157...2F8119990001%2F


Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970