Quote from: mlorrey on 10/16/2011 07:31 pmWhat i'd really like to see with Lynx's astronomy missions would be two Lynx in formation with telescopes operating together as an interferometer.Well, that would be about the opposite of KISS: interferometry requires precision to about half the wavelength of the light being observed. Meaning, you would have to know the position and orientation of the two Lynxes to within ~150 nm for visual observations. That is really, really hard to do on the ground, and next to impossible for two aircraft being jostled around by, well, air.Plus, I'm not that bullish about Lynx being used for operational astronomy; the pointing requirements are just too tight for real science (Lynx Mk.1 only guarantees +/- 2 degrees). On the other hand, it makes much more sense for testing instruments before putting them on a real spacecraft. AFAIK, that's what their deal with SwRI is for.
What i'd really like to see with Lynx's astronomy missions would be two Lynx in formation with telescopes operating together as an interferometer.
Quote from: mlorrey link=topic=19033.msg819362#msg819362 What i'd really like to see with Lynx's astronomy missions would be two Lynx in formation with telescopes operating together as an interferometer.Do you know how optical/IR interferometry works? Doing it on a suborbital hop seems pretty challenging.
I agree its challenging, but then we dont have any interferometers in space at present now, do we?
Quote from: mlorrey on 10/21/2011 08:04 pmI agree its challenging, but then we dont have any interferometers in space at present now, do we?We do, the Fine Guidance Sensors on the Hubble Space Telescope are optical interferometers, as was European Hipparcos astrometry mission and its successor Gaia. In all three cases, they work because they are physically bolted to a single vehicle and are static next to each other, and because they only can look at very bright objects. JPL's Space Interferometer Mission (SIM) soaked up vast sums of money over two decades before being canceled in 2007 in an attempt to go down to much dimmer targets, but still as a single vehicle.The most powerful optical interferometer on Earth is the Navy Optical Interferometer (until last week, it was the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer, NPOI) in Flagstaff, AZ. It has a baseline comparable to the closest separation of two aircraft you'd want, and the beam combiners are massive pieces of precision machinery (I've seen them). If it's borderline impractical on the ground, it's stupidly difficult in the air.And yeah, when you care about the Lynxes' position to the nanometer, there's plenty of air/plasma/etc at altitude to jostle you around...
We do, the Fine Guidance Sensors on the Hubble Space Telescope are optical interferometers, as was European Hipparcos astrometry mission and its successor Gaia.
...2012 will see tourists flying.
Quote from: tegla on 11/03/2011 07:08 pm...2012 will see tourists flying.I would love to be proven wrong but I strongly doubt tourists will be flying in 2012. Even with no problems it would be an incredible achievement to complete a flight test program within a year. Was the 2012 date directly from XCOR or was someone using outdated information?
Jim, the fact that XCOR can do four flights a day with Lynx if need be means explicitly that they can conduct a flight test program at LEAST four times faster than Scaled can... That said... I doubt we will see tourists flying per se. After flight tests, they have a line of passengers set up that includes all company employees and investors...
Jim, the fact that XCOR can do four flights a day with Lynx if need be means explicitly that they can conduct a flight test program at LEAST four times faster than Scaled can...
Quote from: mlorrey on 11/07/2011 04:48 amJim, the fact that XCOR can do four flights a day with Lynx if need be means explicitly that they can conduct a flight test program at LEAST four times faster than Scaled can... Mike, can you provide some examples of supersonic aircraft that went from first flight to operational service within a year? None come to mind. Even if there were some I doubt XCOR would want to use them as a model to emulate.
It seems the photographers are more interested in the model than in the model.
Quote from: Jim Davis on 11/07/2011 05:15 amMike, can you provide some examples of supersonic aircraft that went from first flight to operational service within a year? None come to mind. Even if there were some I doubt XCOR would want to use them as a model to emulate.Pretty much everything built before the 1970's did.
Mike, can you provide some examples of supersonic aircraft that went from first flight to operational service within a year? None come to mind. Even if there were some I doubt XCOR would want to use them as a model to emulate.
