Posted on 10/05/2008 11:08:26 AM PDT by BenLurkin
PALMDALE - NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory captured a unique light show recently, as scientists used the aerial platform to study the disintegration of a spacecraft as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere from orbit. The European Space Agency's "Jules Verne" automated transfer vehicle, the first of a planned series of autonomous spacecraft designed to resupply and re-boost the international space station, returned early Sept. 29 at the conclusion of its six-month maiden mission.
The European agency teamed up with NASA to take advantage of the unique opportunity provided by the planned re-entry to study how objects disintegrate and burn up when encountering the extreme temperatures of entering the atmosphere.
"When we learned about it, we were very interested because this is a controlled re-entry," said Peter Jenniskens, principal investigator on the mission from the SETI Institute at the NASA Ames Research Center.
The vehicle was launched in March and successfully docked to the space station, where it brought supplies, was used as crew quarters and ultimately was filled with trash for the journey back to Earth.
Lacking a heat shield as a weight-saving measure, the spacecraft was designed to disintegrate upon re-entry.
Because it was the maiden voyage of this type of vehicle, the ESA was interested in seeing how it broke apart. NASA scientists, meanwhile, saw the chance to be in a position to study a re-entry similar to a meteor, Jenniskens said.
Although the DC-8 has been used before to study meteor showers, the predictability of this event interested astronomers.
"Natural fireballs are very hard to predict," Jenniskens said. "You have to be very lucky."
Astronomers were interested in seeing how the spacecraft would break apart, in order to better understand how meteors break up.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
Space Ping
I want this on YouTube!
YES pics please
Tom Swift! Cool! Haven’t seen that pic since I was about 11!
It was the term “Flying Lab” that made me think of him. I suspect that you and I were “about 11” at the same time. I lived to read Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys. My apologies Ben Lurkin for my deviation from your topic. Good Post!
Awesome video.
The reentry breakup video sure reminds me of the Columbia tragedy.
BTTT
I had a number of Tom Swift, Jr. books, including, IIRC, that one.
Someday I hope to find them!
Thanks BL. Whew, I thought I’d really set myself to be called a “deviant.”
That video is breathtaking.
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