Satellites To Try Formation Flying on ISS 42
SoySauc writes "From a story on the New Scientist site: 'A soccer-ball-sized satellite will soon be floating aboard the International Space Station. Once joined by two others, it will help researchers test formation flying and autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuvers for future orbiting satellites.' NASA's DART mission was designed to do the same thing, but in 2005 shut itself down and bumped into the satellite it was only meant to approach."
Old news? (Score:2, Interesting)
What I also don't understand is, why the heck the satellites use only ultrasound waves for navigation and positioning. Does anybody know, how they know if something is in front of them? Another robot, a wall, a person? It doesn't say anything about any additional sensors does it? Hopefully it has some
I would also include wireless technology on board to allow the robot to talk to the ship and other robots / sattelites. This way it would be easier to get their position and allow the astronouts to monitor it remotely...
SPHERES (Worst acronym ever) (Score:5, Interesting)
The first SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-Orient Experimental Satellites)
Ok. Yes it's cool sometimes to think of a clever name for something that just happens to spell out a nifty word, but this is crazy. Is "Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-Orient Experimental Satellites" really descriptive? Would you put that horrid name on a technical paper? Only GNU projects such as WINE (WINE is not an emulator) should use ridiculous acronyms.