2024-07-16 01:08:53
Three 64-meter antennas, evenly spaced on Earth, send command signals to the spacecraft and receive information back from them
Due to the movement of the bodies, the route and speed of the ships are constantly recalculated to fractions of degrees and milliseconds
It takes 24 minutes for signals to travel from Earth to Mars, 24 hours – outside the solar system
In 1958, Prof. Feynman calculated by hand that Explorer 2 had fallen into the Atlantic Ocean after the technique slowed down the data
New method calculates optimal route even between Saturn’s 70 moons to avoid wasting fuel
There is a hilarious incident from the book “Autobiography” by Branislav Nusic, in which, to demonstrate how the solar system works, the geography teacher assigns roles to three children to play the Earth, the Moon and the Sun. The first must revolve around itself, the second – around it and around itself, and the two together – and around the third, which moves only in its orbit. Finally, they all get dizzy and fall to the floor. It looks fun when you’re on Earth, but not if it happens in space. Precisely so that there are no accidents and the ships reach their targets and return unscathed, they must be very precisely navigated among all the celestial bodies they pass by.
But how does this happen? Navigation in space is extremely complex, because no object is fixed, and one must constantly recalculate the speed and orientation relative to Earth (from where the command signals come) of the celestial body to which the spacecraft is directed, as well as the coordinates of the ship itself. And last but not least, keep in mind that they all orbit the Sun, if we are talking about bodies of our system.
On Earth, we are all used to relying on GPS navigation, but it only points to our planet, it does not work in the opposite direction. The satellites from which we receive the information are 24 and are located at a distance of 20,000 km from the earth’s surface. They cannot serve as a reference point for missions that are outside this perimeter.
Therefore, a system of three huge stations, equidistant from each other and covering the territory of the Earth, is used for space navigation. One is near Madrid, the second – in California, USA, and the third – in Australia. Every minute, regardless of the Earth’s rotation, one of their massive 64-meter antennas can send and receive signals from the ships. Smaller auxiliary antennas are located next to them. They target with an accuracy of fractions of a degree. Each station is equipped with its own equipment, but communicates with the main one in the USA.
How to calculate when the launched bodies will reach their destination, how much they have deviated from their route and what are the latest studies on how not to waste fuel during repositioning in space, read in the 6/2024 issue of “Cosmos” magazine.