← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · madrussian
Thread ID: 17810 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-04-16
2005-04-16 19:47 | User Profile
It's customary to bash Russian technology as primitive and overrated, but automated docking has been practiced by Russians for decades.
MELBOURNE, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA launched a small satellite into orbit on Friday to test technology aimed at paving the way for the use of automated rendezvous and docking systems in U.S. space missions.
Since the beginning of its space program, the U.S. space agency has depended on astronaut-pilots to link spacecraft in orbit. Russia has used automated docking for years.
NASA wants to determine how well the untended, unmanned satellite it launched on Friday can maneuver around a target satellite. It will use technology from the program in preparation for missions to the moon and elsewhere that could involve automated spacecraft docking.
NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology, or DART, mission began with a boost into orbit aboard an air-launched Pegasus rocket flying off the coast of California.
"Pegasus is away," said NASA launch commentator George Diller as the winged booster dropped from beneath the wing of its L-1011 jet carrier at 1:26 p.m. (1726 GMT).
Twelve minutes and three successful engine burns later, Pegasus' job was complete and the spacecraft fired up its own hydrazine-powered motor to put itself in a parking orbit over the planet's poles.
After an equipment checkout, DART was to begin moving slowly to its target craft, a retired experimental communications satellite owned by the U.S. military that is equipped with two sets of reflectors to bounce back DART's laser beams.
The satellite is called MUBLCOM, an acronym for Multiple Paths, Beyond Line-of-Site Communications. DART will use the information to determine its position relative to MUBLCOM and attempt to close in on the satellite. It is also equipped with an onboard global positioning system to navigate.
"Once DART is launched, it's gone," said project spokeswoman Kim Newton, with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama "It's totally autonomous. It can correct itself."
DART is expected to run through about 50 preprogramed sets of rendezvous maneuvers, including flying around the satellite, moving in close, backing away and descending from above the spacecraft. For its debut test flight, DART will not come closer than about 16 feet to MUBLCOM.
Engineering data will be relayed to researchers through the flight. After completing its mission, DART will fire its engine one last time to dive into the atmosphere where it will be incinerated.