I’m busy working the LADEE mission these days, and I’ve got some stuff coming on it (as soon as I get it cleared by NASA). In the mean time, 2 videos already up on LADEE:
And while the last video mentions that LADEE will use “a low altitude, retrograde, circular orbit. The most complex Lunar flight path attempted since the Apollo missions”, they don’t even show the cool part (my part), which is the cislunar trajectory. It’s coming….
Paul Spudis does an excellent job describing why Express-AM4 should be saved, and then makes a comparison to how things should proceed for Lunar Exploration.
Read here:
Can We Repurpose Space Assets?
AM4 is still up, although reports from Russia show it scheduled to be de-orbited on the 25th.
Astrogator Mike has worked a lot recently on a re-purposing plan for the Express-AM4 spacecraft, and is quoted extensively in this article.
Don’t splash the bird!
Russians to decide on Polar Broadband Plan
This could be a great mission for science, and involved some decent Earth-orbiting astrogation. Stay tuned for more details of this orbit once we hear the fate of the bird. Don’t miss the associated video here:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Air Force Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) came up with a new approach to predicting re-entry while trying to track Phobos-Grunt. Article here:
A New Approach to Predicting Re-Entry
Basically their approach was to take a supercomputer and give it access to the best real-time tracking available. Sounds like their results were pretty good.
(Follow-up from Dan Adamo)
It seems Nature has supplied a timely footnote for my 2011 AG5 risk corridor analysis. Attached are heliocentric and geocentric plots spanning NEO 2012 DA14’s close Earth approach on 15 Feb 2013. Recent Horizons prediction data (reference ephemeris JPL#15) for that event appear in the following table.
