Follow Closest Flyby of Phobos in Real Time

www.universetoday.com...

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Quote from source:
Mars Express will skim over the surface of Mars’ largest moon on Wednesday, making the closest flyby of Phobos by any spacecraft. Passing at just 67 km above the surface, precise radio tracking will allow researchers to virtually peer inside the mysterious moon. You can follow the flyby in "real time," — allowing for the current 6 minute and 30 second light time delay from Mars (13 minutes round trip) – on the Mars Express blog. The flyby will take place on March 3, at 20:55 GMT.

The straight-line distance between Mars Express and Earth is now about 116 million km.
Flying by at such close range, Mars Express will be pulled ‘off-course’ by the gravitational field of Phobos. This will amount to no more than a few millimeters every second and will not affect the mission in any way. However, to the tracking teams on Earth, it will allow a unique look inside the moon to see how its mass is distributed throughout. Phobos' shape is 27 km × 22 km × 19 km, and has a mass of 1.072 x 1016 kg, or about one-billionth the mass of Earth.

To make the very sensitive measurements of Phobos' interior, all the data signals from the spacecraft will be turned off. The only thing that the ground stations will listen out for is the ‘carrier signal’ – the pure radio signal that is normally modulated to carry data.
With no data on the carrier signal, the only thing that can modulate the signal is any change in its frequency caused by Phobos tugging the spacecraft. The changes will amount to variations of just one part in a trillion, and are a manifestation of the Doppler effect – the same effect that causes an ambulance siren to change pitch as it zooms past.

I think it will be cool to see the flyby in real time. I think we all should watch and record it in case something funky goes on and then we have the original copy.

I am glad to see that they are actually showing the public the flyby and not releasing it a couple of months later.

I know what I will be watching tomorrow!!

Any thoughts?

Pred...

VERY

COOL.

Originally posted by predator0187

I think it will be cool to see the flyby in real time. I think we all should watch and record it in case something funky goes on and then we have the original copy.

I am glad to see that they are actually showing the public the flyby and not releasing it a couple of months later.

Well there certainly has been a lot of funky "failures" and "breakdowns" and "losses of contacts" with probes around Mars ever since we started sending them there.

However, I'm quite sure that although they claim that the flyby will be in real-time, there will most definitely be some kind of delay between the official transmission, and the public transmission....

Just in case the locals decide to make an appearance

"However, I'm quite sure that although they claim that the flyby will be in real-time, there will most definitely be some kind of delay between the official transmission, and the public transmission...."

Yeah, this transmission is probably on a ten year delay.

Since there is no way to verify a single word these people say, I don't know why people continue to believe what this agency says.

Just out of curiosity, what is the big fasination with Mars?

From NASA i mean, its not like its inhabitable, so why are they wasting so much money with Mars when there is more important things they could do with it?

Just a thought

Originally posted by Monts
However, I'm quite sure that although they claim that the flyby will be in real-time, there will most definitely be some kind of delay between the official transmission, and the public transmission....

From the article.

You can follow the flyby in "real time," — allowing for the current 6 minute and 30 second light time delay from Mars (13 minutes round trip) – on the Mars Express blog.

So no it's not true real time, but it's about as close as you can get due to the distance.

"High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC)"




yeah...that'll be the day - more like a 1912 black and white gunpowder flash camera jig...

...seriously....

Originally posted by watchZEITGEISTnow
"High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC)"

yeah...that'll be the day - more like a 1912 black and white gunpowder flash camera jig...

...seriously....

Too Funny Man and Too True! Maybe they will have an good ol pianola playing in the background.

[edit on 3-3-2010 by MOTT the HOOPLE]