Gaia – Soyuz-STB/Fregat-MT (VS06) – Куру/Синнамари – 20.12.2013 09:12 UTC

[che wi]

https://twitter.com/ESAGaia/status/419792095277096960

For the next three days focus on #Gaia L2 orbit insertion manoeuvre. Preparations and then thruster burn on 7 January.

[che wi]

The flight dynamics expertise behind Gaia's critical manoeuvre
http://blogs.esa.int/gaia/2014/01/07/the-flight-dynamics-expertise-behind-gaias-critical-manoeuvre/

Burn finished! Results look good! ESA's billion-star surveyor on course for arrival at #L2.

https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/420661348360400896


Gaia Spacecraft successfully performs L2 Orbit Insertion Burn
http://www.spaceflight101.com/gaia-mission-updates.html

[PIN]

che wi пишет:
 The flight dynamics expertise behind Gaia's critical manoeuvre

Flight Dynamics Room вчера была, как муравейник. Такое можно обычно можно наблюдать только в первую смену после пуска.

[DMLL]

Тренировка к запуску очередных шпионов для нанесения последующих ударов и африканизации.

[che wi]

Gaia enters its operational orbit
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Gaia_enters_its_operational_orbit

8 January 2014 // ESA's billion-star surveyor Gaia is now in its operational orbit around a gravitationally stable virtual point in space called 'L2', 1.5 million km from Earth.

Gaia has been travelling towards L2 since 19 December, when, just before dawn local time, it was spectacularly launched from ESA's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

A day later, Gaia performed an important thruster burn to set course to its destination and today's critical manoeuvre boosts Gaia into its 263 000 x 707 000 x 370 000 km, 180 day-long orbit around L2. A small course correction will be made next week to complete the manoeuvre.

"Entering orbit around L2 is a rather complex endeavour, achieved by firing Gaia's thrusters in such as way as to push the spacecraft in the desired direction whilst keeping the Sun away from the delicate science instruments," describes David Milligan, Gaia spacecraft operations manager.

"After a beautiful launch from Kourou last month, we are very happy to now have reached our destination, and we are looking forward to starting our science operations in the coming months," says Giuseppe Sarri, ESA's Gaia project manager.

Once the spacecraft instruments have been fully tested and calibrated – an activity that started en route to L2 and will continue for another four months – Gaia will be ready to enter a five-year operational phase.

Gaia will make very accurate observations of one billion stars, charting their precise positions and motions, as well as their temperatures, luminosities and compositions.

This enormous census will result in the most accurate 3D map yet of the Milky Way and allow astronomers to determine the origin and the evolution of our galaxy.

To achieve its goal, Gaia will spin slowly, sweeping its two telescopes across the entire sky and focusing their light simultaneously onto a single digital camera – the largest ever flown in space with nearly a billion pixels.

Gaia will observe each star an average of 70 times over the five-year mission, after which the data archive will exceed one million Gigabytes, equivalent to about 200 000 DVDs' worth of data.

The task of processing and analysing this colossal treasure trove of data will fall to the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium, comprising more than 400 individuals at scientific institutes across Europe.

"Our Gaia discovery machine will keep us busy throughout the mission, with the final results coming only after the five years of data have been analysed. But it will be well worth the wait, ultimately giving us a new view of our cosmic neighbourhood and its history," says Timo Prusti, ESA's Gaia project scientist.

The orbit of Gaia around the L2 point of the Sun-Earth system.


картинка отсюда

[ВВК]

Интересно, но вроде свои научные миссии  у европейцев в большинстве своем связаны с нашими ракетоносителями

[DMLL]

Не пропадать же тушкам и апл-кам. Что-то вывезут, что купят, что не смогут - уничтожат.

[ВВК]

А я думал мы просто такие крутые

[Вован]

ВВК пишет:
Интересно, но вроде свои научные миссии у европейцев в большинстве своем связаны с нашими ракетоносителями

   

[che wi]

https://twitter.com/ESAGaia/status/421071739255140352

After L2 orbit insertion #Gaia was put spinning. Not fully in nominal mode, but still some 17,000 stars were observed in the first 3 hours.

[ВВК]

Вован пишет:
 

ВВК пишет:
Интересно, но вроде свои научные миссии у европейцев в большинстве своем связаны с нашими ракетоносителями

               
                  

Виноват про армию видно думал

[che wi]

https://twitter.com/ESAGaia/status/421634779516137472

#Gaia spinning stopped for the final L2 insertion manoeuvre on 14 Jan. On 15 Jan spinning will be resumed. Forever ...

[ronatu]

Первым таким проектом стал запущенный в 1989 году телескоп Hipparcos. Несмотря на то что спутник не удалось вывести на запланированную геостационарную орбиту, наблюдения длились три года, и по измеренным параллаксам был создан обширный каталог Hipparcos, в котором с большой точностью просчитаны координаты 118 тыс. звезд, и каталог Tycho, включающий положение более миллиона звезд с невысокой точностью. Hipparcos не использовал получившие чуть позднее массовое распространение в астрономии ПЗС-матрицы, а наблюдал за звездами при помощи архаичного для сегодняшнего дня фотоэлектронного умножителя, поэтому в каждый момент времени в поле зрения находилась лишь одна звезда.

В отличие от него Gaia имеет в распоряжении целый набор из 106 ПЗС-матриц, которые в сумме дают почти 1 млрд пикселей и образуют фотодетектор площадью 0,5 кв. м –
крупнейший приемник из когда-либо запускавшихся в космос.
Под стать техническим возможностям телескопа и амбиции его создателей. За пять лет работы обсерватории планируется определить точное положение 1 млрд звезд вплоть до 20 звездной величины – то есть примерно 1% от всех звезд Млечного Пути.

http://www.gazeta.ru/science/2013/12/19_a_5810801.shtml

[ronatu]

По сути Gaia – это два телескопа, оптические оси которого разнесены на 106,50. По мере вращения спутника вокруг своей оси каждый телескоп будет отсекать узкую полоску небесной сферы. Поэтому медленное смещение оси аппарата позволит в итоге оглядеть все небо, при этом за пять лет работы обсерватория пришлет на Землю больше снимков, чем было сделано телескопом Hubble за 21 год работы.

[ronatu]

Кроме того, планируется провести наблюдения полумиллиона далеких квазаров и проверить состоятельность Общей теории относительности Эйнштейна, а само уточнение скоростей звезд внутри нашей галактики позволит пролить свет на природу и распределение темной материи – загадочной субстанции, пронизывающей галактику и удерживающей ее звезды.

[che wi]

https://twitter.com/ESAGaia/status/423134574290280448

#Gaia is in its operational Lissajous orbit around L2. The thruster burn today was perfect.

[che wi]

First image of a single star taken by Gaia published
http://hvossgaia.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/first-image-of-a-single-star-taken-by-gaia-published/

This is Sadalmelik. a bright star (V magnitude 3) in the constellation Aquarius. It is also known as Alpha Aquarii. The image was taken by Gaia recently. The star was observed when the satellite was spinning – the normal mode of observations. And I can tell you, that more stars are out there, many more.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1401/14gaia/#.UtbKJfs2NeI

European Space Agency's Gaia mission settles in at L2
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: January 14, 2014
   
The star-surveying Gaia observatory completed a tricky maneuver Tuesday to park itself nearly a million miles from Earth, arriving at a remote operating post to begin scanning the galaxy to plot the locations and motions of a billion stars.

Artist's concept of Gaia. Photo credit: ESA
 
 Fitted with a pair of telescopes and the largest camera ever flown in space, Gaia launched Dec. 19 aboard a Soyuz rocket, departing on a nearly three-week cruise to the L2 Lagrange point.
Gravity from the Earth and sun helps suspend Gaia in a relatively stable looping orbit around a fixed position about 1.5 million kilometers, or 932,000 miles, from Earth.
Gaia fired its rocket thrusters a day after launch in December to put the probe on course to arrive at L2. Ground controllers devised a two-part maneuver to place Gaia in the correct orbit around the Lagrange point, beginning with a burn Jan. 7 and concluding with a smaller rocket firing Tuesday.
"Gaia is in its operational Lissajous orbit around L2," officials wrote Tuesday on the European mission's official Twitter account. "The thruster burn today was perfect."
Gaia will complete a loop around the L2 point once every 180 days, according to the European Space Agency. Gaia's trajectory is not stable, so engineers plan monthly maneuvers to maintain the spacecraft's so-called Lissajous orbit.
"Entering orbit around L2 is a rather complex endeavor, achieved by firing Gaia's thrusters in such a way as to push the spacecraft in the desired direction whilst keeping the Sun away from the delicate science instruments," said David Milligan, Gaia's spacecraft operations manager, in a press release.

Gaia's home is at the L2 Lagrange point 1.5 million kilometers, or 932,000 miles, from the night side of Earth. The L2 point is a gravitationally stable location used by several space telescopes. Photo credit: ESA
 
 The ambitious survey mission aims to unravel the Milky Way's complex and dynamic motion by observing the brightest billion stars in the sky. Although that number represents less than 1 percent of the stars in the galaxy, scientists say it's enough to deduce the Milky Way's structure and run its motion back and forward in time in an exercise to see how our cosmic neighborhood evolved and what might happen next.
Officials say Gaia's total cost is approximately 940 million euros, or nearly $1.3 billion, including contributions from ESA and academic institutions in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France and Spain responsible for processing the mission's immense data archive.
Gaia's science mission is scheduled to begin by early May, after the spacecraft completes a thorough checkout and test period to ensure the science instruments are working normally.
The ground control team activated Gaia's imaging system in the first week of January. Gaia's array of CCD detectors - nearly a billion pixels - span the size of a table top, giving it the imaging power to resolve a strand of hair 1,000 miles away.
Gaia is planned for a five-year survey of the cosmos, detecting every star, supernova, quasar, planet and asteroid brighter than 20th magnitude -- 400,000 times dimmer than visible with the naked eye.
Read more on the Gaia mission.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

[PIN]

che wi пишет:
The thruster burn today was perfect.

Я бы даже сказал - экстраординарно точно отработала ДУ это и предыдущие включения.

[Lupus_sat]

Только картинки могут неподготовленного читателя ввести в ошибочное представление, что тень Земли тянется за пределы L2 (1,5 млн. км). На самом деле тень Земли заканчивается на расстоянии 1361029-1408104 км (среднее значение 1384566 км) от центра Земли, т.е. более чем за 100 000 км от L2. Тень Земли -- сужающийся конус, а на рисунке изображена полутень в виде слаборасходящегося конуса.