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Originally posted by zorgon
Perhaps ArMaP has the time to take the images from the 11th to the 31st in the 1024 format size and put them all together into an animation?
The most famous sustained arc event of all led to the breakage of the TSS-1R electrodynamic tether, and the loss of the attached satellite. The image below shows the burned, frayed and broken tether end still attached to the Shuttle after the break. Incidentally, the tether continued arcing long after it and its satellite were drifting free, until finally it went into night conditions where the electron density was insufficient to sustain the arc. Noel Sargent (2002) has investigated whether the TSS-1R arc was seen to disrupt Shuttle communications. Although he has found no record of disturbed communications during the event, for most of the time the arc was shielded by metallic structures from the communications antennas, and when the tether broke, the arc was many meters from the receiving antennas. It remains to be seen whether sustained arcs produce radio noise severe enough to be a communications problem.
Using a hand-held camera system with image intensifiers and special filters, the TOP investigation will provide visual data that may allow scientists to answer a variety of questions concerning tether dynamics and optical effects generated by TSS-1R. In particular, this experiment will examine the high-voltage plasma sheath surrounding the satellite...
In one mode of operation, the current developed in the Tethered Satellite System is closed by using electron accelerators to return electrons to the plasma surrounding the orbiter. The interaction between these electron beams and the plasma is not well understood...
Associate Investigator: Stephen Mende, Lockheed Martin
Later vacuum-chamber experiments suggested that the unwinding of the reel uncovered pinholes in the insulation. That in itself would not have caused a major problem, because the ionosphere around the tether, under normal circumstance, was too rarefied to divert much of the current. However, the air trapped in the insulation changed that. As it bubbled out of the pinholes, the high voltage ("electric pressure") of the nearby tether, about 3500 volts, converted it into a plasma ( in a way similar to the ignition of a fluorescent tube), a relatively dense one and therefore a much better conductor of electricity.
Orbiting vehicles were found to emit optical radiation while travelling through
the atmosphere [1]. During the third Shuttle flight in 1982, images taken by the
astronauts have shown an orange glow over the Shuttle tail and thrusters concentrated
around the areas exposed to the ,orbital wind,. The glow spreads for about
20 cm over the Shuttle surface.
During some nighttime orbital passes, crew members worked with the Tether Optical Phenomena Experiment (TOP), which gave a stunning view of atmospheric air glow and auroras over the South Pole as viewed from the flight deck's overhead window. This is the window through which the crew later will watch the deployed satellite. TOP science team members viewed live video images and sent voice commands to vary the filters and exposure setting for better viewing. The heart of the TOP instrument is a hand-held low-light video camera with special filters whose primary purpose on TSS is to observe luminescence produced by electron beams and the interaction of the electrically charged satellite with the local charged-particle and neutral atmosphere. The TOP has many advantages over similar photographic recordings made on previous flights because it allows real-time observations of the images seen by the orbiter crew.
Originally posted by zorgon
So whose primary purpose on TSS is to observe luminescence produced by electron beams and the interaction of the electrically charged satellite with the local charged-particle and neutral atmosphere
In other words its NOT seeing dust and ice particles reflecting light... it is seeing CRITTERS that are electrically charged...
Silly debunkers
Originally posted by RFBurns
Originally posted by zorgon
So whose primary purpose on TSS is to observe luminescence produced by electron beams and the interaction of the electrically charged satellite with the local charged-particle and neutral atmosphere
In other words its NOT seeing dust and ice particles reflecting light... it is seeing CRITTERS that are electrically charged...
Silly debunkers
BAM!!! Now thats the kind of bomb I like to see go off!!
Originally posted by zorgon
Was saving that for a rainy day
science.ksc.nasa.gov...
By using the TOP images to make measurements of the visible light radiated by the plasma, this process, and how it affects the spacecraft, can be better understood
Originally posted by RFBurns
reply to post by Kandinsky
These critters are in their natural state, an energy form.
It would be logical for an energy based life form to absorb radiations out in space when that is their natural habitat. They dont need physical substance to sustain themselves, they need energy.
Us in the physical form, we need physical substanance...ie food and water. The critters are energy, hence they cannot use physical substanance, they would need to absorb energies or radiations and transform that intake of radiation or energy to sustain them, much like recharging a cell.
Originally posted by RFBurns
Yes it definately changes direction! Now there is nothing nearby that would make some ice particle or debris or junk change direction. The shuttle is 80 nm away at that point, so no thruster blast caused it, and if it was thruster blast, it would not do a gradual turn, but a radical swift change in direction. This puppy does a nice coordinated gradual turn down when it moves to the right of the frame.
Originally posted by zorgon
The STS 75 footage was not taken by an ordinary camera... so before we start discussing lens artifacts maybe we should look closely at the camera?
In other words its NOT seeing dust and ice particles reflecting light... it is seeing CRITTERS that are electrically charged...