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Slice of History | September 27, 2017
This orrery was built for NASA/JPL by Pre-Mec Engineering, Inc. and was designed by JPL engineer Raymond A. McCreary (Design Section, 356 – part of the Engineering Mechanics Division).
The scale of Earth and its moon was approximately 1 cm = 6000 km, but the scale of orbits, the Sun, and other moons varied.
Computer animations did not exist in the early 1960s, and like a trajectory model, this orrery helped engineers plan, visualize, and demonstrate the expected flight path, flyby, or landing to be made by a spacecraft. Missions in development at this time were Ranger and Surveyor (lunar missions), Mariner 2 to Venus, and Mariner 4 to Mars.
For more information about the history of JPL, contact the JPL Archives for assistance. [Archival and other sources: Section 321 photo album and index, and JPL/Caltech phone directories
Slice of History | December 1, 2014
Mariner 3 Systems Test Configuration
Several spacecraft were built for the Mariner Mars 1964 mission. The ones that were actually launched were referred to as Mariner C-2 and Mariner C-3 until they were renamed Mariner 3 and Mariner 4, respectively. There was also a Proof Test Model (PTM, or Mariner C-1) and a Structural Test Model (STM). This photo shows Mariner C-2 configured for system tests in May 1964. It appears to be in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, with the observation area at the top of the photo.
Mariner 3 was launched November 5, 1964, but the shroud did not fully eject from the spacecraft, the solar panels did not deploy, and the batteries ran out of power. The problem was fixed on Mariner 4, which began its successful journey to Mars on November 28, 1964.
Documentation found in the Archives does not identify the purpose of the sphere covering the magnetometer during this test.This post was written for "Historical Photo of the Month," a blog by Julie Cooper of JPL's Library and Archives Group.
Dawn Journal | November 28, 2014
Same Place, Different Space: Dawn's New Trajectory Explained
Dear Unidawntified Flying Objects,
Flying silently and smoothly through the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Dawn emits a blue-green beam of high velocity xenon ions. On the opposite side of the sun from Earth, firing its uniquely efficient ion propulsion system, the distant adventurer is continuing to make good progress on its long trek from the giant protoplanet Vesta to dwarf planet Ceres.
This month, let's look ahead to some upcoming activities. You can use the sun in December to locate Dawn in the sky, but before we describe that, let's see how Dawn is looking ahead to Ceres, with plans to take pictures on the night of Dec. 1.
The robotic explorer's sensors are complex devices that perform many sensitive measurements. To ensure they yield the best possible scientific data, their health must be carefully monitored and maintained, and they must be accurately calibrated. The sophisticated instruments are activated and tested occasionally, and all remain in excellent condition. One final calibration of the science camera is needed before arrival at Ceres. To accomplish it, the camera needs to take pictures of a target that appears just a few pixels across. The endless sky that surrounds our interplanetary traveler is full of stars, but those beautiful pinpoints of light, while easily detectable, are too small for this specialized measurement. But there is an object that just happens to be the right size. On Dec. 1, Ceres will be about nine pixels in diameter, nearly perfect for this calibration.
The images will provide data on very subtle optical properties of the camera that scientists will use when they analyze and interpret the details of some of the pictures returned from orbit. At 740,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers), Dawn's distance to Ceres will be about three times the separation between Earth and the moon. Its camera, designed for mapping Vesta and Ceres from orbit, will not reveal anything new. It will, however, reveal something cool! The pictures will be the first extended view for the first probe to reach the first dwarf planet discovered. They will show the largest body between the sun and Pluto that has not yet been visited by a spacecraft, Dawn's destination since it climbed out of Vesta's gravitational grip more than two years ago.
This will not be the first time Dawn has spotted Ceres. In a different calibration of the camera more than four years ago, the explorer descried its faint destination, far away in both time and space. Back then, still a year before arriving at Vesta, Dawn was more than 1,300 times farther from Ceres than it will be for this new calibration. The giant of the main asteroid belt was an indistinct dot in the vast cosmic landscape.
Dawn's first photo of Ceres, taken on July 20, 2010. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MPS/DLR/IDA
Now Ceres is the brightest object in Dawn's sky save the distant sun. When it snaps the photos, Ceres will be as bright as Venus sometimes appears from Earth (what astronomers would call visual magnitude -3.6).
Dawn's first extended picture of Ceres will be only slightly larger than this image of Vesta taken on May 3, 2011, at the beginning of the Vesta approach phase. The inset shows the pixelated Vesta, extracted from the main picture in which the overexposed Vesta can be seen against the background of stars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
To conserve hydrazine, a precious resource following the loss of two reaction wheels, Dawn will thrust with its ion propulsion system when it performs this calibration, which requires long exposures. In addition to moving the spacecraft along in its trajectory, the ion engine stabilizes the ship, enabling it to point steadily in the zero-gravity of spaceflight. (Dawn's predecessor, Deep Space 1, used the same trick of ion thrusting in order to be as stable as possible for its initial photos of comet Borrelly.)
As Dawn closes in on its quarry, Ceres will grow brighter and larger. Last month we summarized the plan for photographing Ceres during the first part of the approach phase, yielding views in January comparable to the best we currently have (from Hubble Space Telescope) and in February significantly better. The principal purpose of the pictures is to help navigators steer the ship into this uncharted, final port following a long voyage on the interplanetary seas. The camera serves as the helmsman's eyes. Ceres has been observed with telescopes from (or near) Earth for more than two centuries, but it has appeared as little more than a faint, fuzzy blob farther away than the sun. But not for much longer!
merest whisper of thrust, the ion engine allows Dawn to maneuver in ways entirely different from conventional spacecraft. In January, we presented in detail Dawn's unique way of slipping into orbit. In September, a burst of space radiation disrupted the thrust profile. As we saw, the flight team responded swiftly to a very complex problem, minimizing the duration of the missed thrust. One part of their contingency operations was to design a new approach trajectory, accounting for the 95 hours that Dawn coasted instead of thrust. Let's take a look now at how the resulting trajectory differs from what we discussed at the beginning of this year.The only spaceship ever built to orbit two extraterrestrial destinations, Dawn's advanced ion propulsion system enables its ambitious mission. Providing the
In the original approach, Dawn would follow a simple spiral around Ceres, approaching from the general direction of the sun, looping over the south pole, going beyond to the night side, and coming back above the north pole before easing into the targeted orbit, known by the stirring name RC3, at an altitude of 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers). Like a pilot landing a plane, flying this route required lining up on a particular course and speed well in advance. The ion thrusting this year had been setting Dawn up to get on that approach spiral early next year.
The change in its flight profile following the September encounter with a rogue cosmic ray meant the spiral path would be markedly different and would require significantly longer to complete. While the flight team certainly is patient -- after all, Earth's robotic ambassador won't reach Ceres until 213 years after its discovery and more than seven years after launch -- the brilliantly creative navigators devised an entirely new approach trajectory that would be shorter. Demonstrating the extraordinary flexibility of ion propulsion, the spacecraft now will take a completely different path but will wind up in exactly the same orbit.
The spacecraft will allow itself to be captured by Ceres on March 6, only about half a day later than the trajectory it was pursuing before the hiatus in thrust, but the geometry both before and after will be quite different. Instead of flying south of Ceres, Dawn is now targeted to trail a little behind it, letting the dwarf planet lead as they both orbit the sun, and then the spacecraft will begin to gently curve around it. (You can see this in the figure below.) Dawn will come to 24,000 miles (38,000 kilometers) and then will slowly arc away. But thanks to the remarkable design of the thrust profile, the ion engine and the gravitational pull from the behemoth of rock and ice will work together. At a distance of 41,000 miles (61,000 kilometers), Ceres will reach out and tenderly take hold of its new consort, and they will be together evermore. Dawn will be in orbit, and Ceres will forever be accompanied by this former resident of Earth.
In this view, looking down on the north pole of Ceres, the sun is off the figure to the left and Ceres' counterclockwise orbital motion around the sun takes it from the bottom of the figure to the top. Dawn flies in from the left, traveling behind Ceres, and then is captured on the way to the apex of its orbit. The white circles are at one-day intervals, illustrating how Dawn slows down gradually at first. (When the circles are closer together, Dawn is moving more slowly.) After capture, both Ceres' gravity and the ion thrust slow it even more before the craft accelerates to the end of the approach phase. (You can think of this perspective as being from above. Then the next figure shows the view from the side, which here would mean looking toward the action from a location off the bottom of the graphic.) Image credit: NASA/JPL
If the spacecraft stopped thrusting just when Ceres captured it, it would continue looping around the massive body in a high, elliptical orbit, but its mission is to scrutinize the mysterious world. Our goal is not to be in just any arbitrary orbit but rather in the particular orbits that have been chosen to provide the best scientific return for the probe's camera and other sensors. So it won't stop but instead will continue maneuvering to RC3.
Ever graceful, Dawn will gently thrust to counter its orbital momentum, keeping it from swinging up to the highest altitude it would otherwise attain. On March 18, nearly two weeks after it is captured by Ceres' gravity, Dawn will arc to the crest of its orbit. Like a ball thrown high that slows to a momentary stop before falling back, Dawn's orbital ascent will end at an altitude of 47,000 miles (75,000 kilometers), and Ceres' relentless pull (aided by the constant, gentle thrust) will win out. As it begins descending toward its gravitational master, it will continue working with Ceres. Rather than resist the fall, the spacecraft will thrust to accelerate itself, quickening the trip down to RC3.
There is more to the specification of the orbit than the altitude. One of the other attributes is the orientation of the orbit in space. (Imagine an orbit as a ring around Ceres, but that ring can be tipped and tilted in many ways.) To provide a view of the entire surface as Ceres rotates underneath it, Dawn needs to be in a polar orbit, flying over the north pole as it travels from the nightside to the dayside, moving south as it passes over the equator, sailing back to the unilluminated side when it reaches the south pole, and then heading north above terrain in the dark of night. To accomplish the earlier part of its new approach trajectory, however, Dawn will stay over lower latitudes, very high above the mysterious surface but not far from the equator. Therefore, as it races toward RC3, it will orient its ion engine not only to shorten the time to reach that orbital altitude but also to tip the plane of its orbit so that it encircles the poles (and tilts the plane to be at a particular orientation relative to the sun). Then, finally, as it gets closer still, it will turn to use that famously efficient glowing beam of xenon ions against Ceres' gravity, acting as a brake rather than an accelerator. By April 23, this first act of a beautiful new celestial ballet will conclude. Dawn will be in the originally intended orbit around Ceres, ready for its next act: the intensive observations of RC3 we described in February.
North is at the top of this figure and the sun is far to the left. Ceres orbital motion around the sun carries it straight into the figure. The original approach took Dawn over Ceres' south pole as it spiraled directly into RC3. On the new approach, it looks here as if it flies in over the north pole, but that is because of the flat depiction. As the previous figure shows, the approach takes Dawn well behind Ceres in their progression around the sun. The upper part of the green trajectory is not in the same plane as the original approach and RC3; rather, it is in the foreground, "in front of" the graphic. As Dawn flies to the right side of the diagram, it also moves back into the plane of the figure to align with the targeted RC3. As before, the circles, spaced at intervals of one day, indicate the spacecraft's speed; where they are closer together, the ship travels more slowly. (You can think of this perspective as being from the side and the previous figure as showing the view from above, off the top of this graphic.) Image credit: NASA/JPL
Dawn's route to orbit is no more complex and elegant than what any crackerjack spaceship pilot would execute. However, one of the key differences between what our ace will perform and what often happens in science fiction movies is that Dawn's maneuvers will comply with the laws of physics. And if that's not gratifying enough, perhaps the fact that it's real makes it even more impressive. A spaceship sent from Earth more than seven years ago, propelled by electrically accelerated ions, having already maneuvered extensively in orbit around the giant protoplanet Vesta to reveal its myriad secrets, soon will bank and roll, arc and turn, ascend and descend, and swoop into its planned orbit.
Illustration of the relative locations (but not sizes) of Earth, the sun, and Dawn in early December 2014. (Earth and the sun are at that location every December.) The images are superimposed on the trajectory for the entire mission, showing the positions of Earth, Mars, Vesta, and Ceres at milestones during Dawn's voyage. Image credit: NASA/JPL
As Earth, the sun, and the spacecraft come closer into alignment, radio signals that go back and forth must pass near the sun. The solar environment is fierce indeed, and it will interfere with those radio waves. While some signals will get through, communication will not be reliable. Therefore, controllers plan to send no messages to the spacecraft from Dec. 4 through Dec. 15; all instructions needed during that time will be stored onboard beforehand. Occasionally Deep Space Network antennas, pointing near the sun, will listen through the roaring noise for the faint whisper of the spacecraft, but the team will consider any communication to be a bonus.
Dawn is big for an interplanetary spacecraft (or for an otherworldly dragonfly, for that matter), with a wingspan of nearly 65 feet (19.7 meters). However, more than 3.8 times as far as the sun, 352 million miles (567 million kilometers) away, humankind lacks any technology even remotely capable of glimpsing it. But we can bring to bear something more powerful than our technology: our mind's eye. From Dec. 8 to 11, if you block the sun's blazing light with your thumb, you will also be covering Dawn's location. There, in that direction, is our faraway emissary to new worlds. It has traveled three billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers) already on its extraordinary extraterrestrial expedition, and some of the most exciting miles are still ahead as it nears Ceres. You can see right where it is. It is now on the far side of the sun.
The sun!
This is the same sun that is more than 100 times the diameter of Earth and a third of a million times its mass. This is the same sun that has been the unchallenged master of our solar system for more than 4.5 billion years. This is the same sun that has shone down on Earth all that time and has been the ultimate source of so much of the heat, light and other energy upon which the planet's residents have been so dependent. This is the same sun that has so influenced human expression in art, literature, mythology and religion for uncounted millennia. This is the same sun that has motivated scientific studies for centuries. This is the same sun that is our signpost in the Milky Way galaxy. And humans have a spacecraft on the far side of it. We may be humbled by our own insignificance in the universe, yet we still undertake the most valiant adventures in our attempts to comprehend its majesty.
Dawn is 780,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers) from Ceres, or 3.3 times the average distance between Earth and the moon. It is also 3.77 AU (350 million miles, or 564 million kilometers) from Earth, or 1,525 times as far as the moon and 3.82 times as far as the sun today. Radio signals, traveling at the universal limit of the speed of light, take one hour and three minutes to make the round trip.
› Read more entries from Marc Rayman's Dawn Journal
Slice of History | September 30, 2014
Mariner Mars 1964 Solar Panel Test
"Most space projects live nine lives on the test bench before they are allowed one life in flight."* The Mariner Mars mission was on a tight schedule in 1964, so testing was not quite as extensive as it was for other missions. A full-size temperature-control model and a proof-test model went through a series of environmental and vibration tests in the 25-foot space simulator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other test facilities. This photo was taken in June 1964, outside of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at JPL. In this unusual outdoor setting, the solar panel test took place in a large plastic tent.
After testing was completed, two spacecraft and a spare (the proof-test model) were partly disassembled, carefully packed and loaded on moving vans for a trip to the Air Force Eastern Test Range in Cape Kennedy, Florida. They were inspected, reassembled, and tested again before launch.
*To Mars: the Odyssey of Mariner IV, TM33-229, 1965.
This post was written for "Historical Photo of the Month," a blog by Julie Cooper of JPL's Library and Archives Group.
Dawn Journal | September 27, 2014
It's No Seven-Year Itch for Dawn: The Dwarf Planet Awaits
Dear Dawnniversaries,
On the seventh anniversary of embarking upon its extraordinary extraterrestrial expedition, the Dawn spacecraft is far from the planet where its journey began. While Earth has completed its repetitive loops around the sun seven times, its ambassador to the cosmos has had a much more varied itinerary. On most of its anniversaries, including this one, it reshapes its orbit around the sun, aiming for some of the last uncharted worlds in the inner solar system. (It also zipped past the oft-visited Mars, robbing the red planet of some of its orbital energy to help fling the spacecraft on to the more distant main asteroid belt.) It spent its fourth anniversary exploring the giant protoplanet Vesta, the second most massive object in the asteroid belt, revealing a fascinating, complex, alien place more akin to Earth and the other terrestrial planets than to typical asteroids. This anniversary is the last it will spend sailing on the celestial seas. By its eighth, it will be at its new, permanent home, dwarf planet Ceres.
The mysterious world of rock and ice is the first dwarf planet discovered (129 years before Pluto) and the largest body between the sun and Pluto that a spacecraft has not yet visited. Dawn will take up residence there so it can conduct a detailed investigation, recording pictures and other data not only for scientists but for everyone who has ever gazed up at the night sky in wonder, everyone who is curious about the nature of the universe, everyone who feels the burning passion for adventure and the insatiable hunger for knowledge and everyone who longs to know the cosmos.
Dawn is the only spacecraft ever to orbit a resident of the asteroid belt. It is also the only ship ever targeted to orbit two deep-space destinations. This unique mission would be quite impossible without its advanced ion propulsion system, giving it capabilities well beyond what conventional chemical propulsion provides. That is one of the keys to how such a voyage can be undertaken.
For those who would like to track the probe's progress in the same terms used on previous (and, we boldly predict, subsequent) anniversaries, we present here the seventh annual summary, reusing text from last year with updates where appropriate. Readers who wish to reflect upon Dawn's ambitious journey may find it helpful to compare this material with the logs from its first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth anniversaries. On this anniversary, as we will see below, the moon will participate in the celebration.
In its seven years of interplanetary travels, the spacecraft has thrust for a total of 1,737 days, or 68 percent of the time (and about 0.000000034 percent of the time since the Big Bang). While for most spacecraft, firing a thruster to change course is a special event, it is Dawn's wont. All this thrusting has cost the craft only 808 pounds (366 kilograms) of its supply of xenon propellant, which was 937 pounds (425 kilograms) on Sep. 27, 2007.
The thrusting so far in the mission has achieved the equivalent of accelerating the probe by 22,800 mph (10.2 kilometers per second). As previous logs have described (see here for one of the more extensive discussions), because of the principles of motion for orbital flight, whether around the sun or any other gravitating body, Dawn is not actually traveling this much faster than when it launched. But the effective change in speed remains a useful measure of the effect of any spacecraft's propulsive work. Having accomplished about seven-eighths of the thrust time planned for its entire mission, Dawn has already far exceeded the velocity change achieved by any other spacecraft under its own power. (For a comparison with probes that enter orbit around Mars, refer to this earlier log.)
Since launch, our readers who have remained on or near Earth have completed seven revolutions around the sun, covering 44.0 AU (4.1 billion miles, or 6.6 billion kilometers). Orbiting farther from the sun, and thus moving at a more leisurely pace, Dawn has traveled 31.4 AU (2.9 billion miles, or 4.7 billion kilometers). As it climbed away from the sun to match its orbit to that of Vesta, it continued to slow down to Vesta's speed. It has been slowing down still more to rendezvous with Ceres. Since Dawn's launch, Vesta has traveled only 28.5 AU (2.6 billion miles, or 4.3 billion kilometers), and the even more sedate Ceres has gone 26.8 AU (2.5 billion miles, or 4.0 billion kilometers). (To develop a feeling for the relative speeds, you might reread this paragraph by paying attention to only one set of units, whether you choose AU, miles, or kilometers. Ignore the other two scales so you can focus on the differences in distance among Earth, Dawn, Vesta and Ceres over the seven years. You will see that as the strength of the sun's gravitational grip weakens at greater distance, the corresponding orbital speed decreases.)
Another way to investigate the progress of the mission is to chart how Dawn's orbit around the sun has changed. This discussion will culminate with a few more numbers than we usually include, and readers who prefer not to indulge may skip this material, leaving that much more for the grateful Numerivores. (If you prefer not to skip it, click here.) In order to make the table below comprehensible (and to fulfill our commitment of environmental responsibility), we recycle some more text here on the nature of orbits.
Orbits are ellipses (like flattened circles, or ovals in which the ends are of equal size). So as members of the solar system family follow their paths around the sun, they sometimes move closer and sometimes move farther from it.
In addition to orbits being characterized by shape, or equivalently by the amount of flattening (that is, the deviation from being a perfect circle), and by size, they may be described in part by how they are oriented in space. Using the bias of terrestrial astronomers, the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun (known as the ecliptic) is a good reference. Other planets and interplanetary spacecraft may travel in orbits that are tipped at some angle to that. The angle between the ecliptic and the plane of another body's orbit around the sun is the inclination of that orbit. Vesta and Ceres do not orbit the sun in the same plane that Earth does, and Dawn must match its orbit to that of its targets. (The major planets orbit closer to the ecliptic, and part of the arduousness of the journey is changing the inclination of its orbit, an energetically expensive task.)
Now we can see how Dawn has been doing by considering the size and shape (together expressed by the minimum and maximum distances from the sun) and inclination of its orbit on each of its anniversaries. (Experts readily recognize that there is more to describing an orbit than these parameters. Our policy remains that we link to the experts' websites when their readership extends to one more elliptical galaxy than ours does.)
The table below shows what the orbit would have been if the spacecraft had terminated ion thrusting on its anniversaries; the orbits of its destinations, Vesta and Ceres, are included for comparison. Of course, when Dawn was on the launch pad on Sep. 27, 2007, its orbit around the sun was exactly Earth's orbit. After launch, it was in its own solar orbit.
|Minimum distance from the Sun (AU)
|Maximum distance from the Sun (AU)
|Earth's orbit
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2007 (before launch)
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2007 (after launch)
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2008
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2009
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2010
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2011
|Vesta's orbit
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2012
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2013
|Dawn's orbit on Sep. 27, 2014
|Ceres' orbit
For readers who are not overwhelmed by the number of numbers, investing the effort to study the table may help to demonstrate how Dawn has patiently transformed its orbit during the course of its mission. Note that three years ago, the spacecraft's path around the sun was exactly the same as Vesta's. Achieving that perfect match was, of course, the objective of the long flight that started in the same solar orbit as Earth, and that is how Dawn managed to slip into orbit around Vesta. While simply flying by it would have been far easier, matching orbits with Vesta required the exceptional capability of the ion propulsion system. Without that technology, NASA's Discovery Program would not have been able to afford a mission to explore it in such detail. But now, Dawn has gone even beyond that. Having discovered so many of Vesta's secrets, the stalwart adventurer left the protoplanet behind. No other spacecraft has ever escaped from orbit around one distant solar system object to travel to and orbit still another extraterrestrial destination. A true interplanetary spaceship, Dawn is enlarging, reshaping and tilting its orbit again so that in 2015, it will be identical to Ceres'.
› Continue reading Marc Rayman's Dawn Journal
Dawn Journal | August 31, 2014
How Dawn Will Get the Low-Down on the First Dwarf Planet Ever Discovered
Dear Omnipodawnt Readers,
Dawn draws ever closer to the mysterious Ceres, the largest body between the sun and Pluto not yet visited by a probe from Earth. The spacecraft is continuing to climb outward from the sun atop a blue-green beam of xenon ions from its uniquely efficient ion propulsion system. The constant, gentle thrust is reshaping its solar orbit so that by March 2015, it will arrive at the first dwarf planet ever discovered. Once in orbit, it will undertake an ambitious exploration of the exotic world of ice and rock that has been glimpsed only from afar for more than two centuries.
An important characteristic of this interplanetary expedition is that Dawn can linger at its destinations, conducting extensive observations. Since December, we have presented overviews of all the phases of the mission at Ceres save one. (In addition, questions posted by readers each month, occasionally combined with an answer, have helped elucidate some of the interesting features of the mission.) We have described how Dawn will approach its gargantuan new home (with an equatorial diameter of more than 600 miles, or 975 kilometers) and slip into orbit with the elegance of a celestial dancer. The spacecraft will unveil the previously unseen sights with its suite of sophisticated sensors from progressively lower altitude orbits, starting at 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers), then from survey orbit at 2,730 miles (4,400 kilometers), and then from the misleadingly named high altitude mapping orbit (HAMO) only 910 miles (1,470 kilometers) away. To travel from one orbit to another, it will use its extraordinary ion propulsion system to spiral lower and lower and lower. This month, we look at the final phase of the long mission, as Dawn dives down to the low altitude mapping orbit (LAMO) at 230 miles (375 kilometers). We will also consider what future awaits our intrepid adventurer after it has accomplished the daring plans at Ceres.
It will take the patient and tireless robot two months to descend from HAMO to LAMO, winding in tighter and tighter loops as it goes. By the time it has completed the 160 revolutions needed to reach LAMO, Dawn will be circling Ceres every 5.5 hours. (Ceres rotates on its own axis in 9.1 hours.) The spacecraft will be so close that Ceres will appear as large as a soccer ball seen from less than seven inches (17 centimeters) away. In contrast, Earth will be so remote that the dwarf planet would look to terrestrial observers no larger than a soccer ball from as far as 170 miles (270 kilometers). Dawn will have a uniquely fabulous view.
As in the higher orbits, Dawn will scrutinize Ceres with all of its scientific instruments, returning pictures and other information to eager Earthlings. The camera and visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) will reveal greater detail than ever on the appearance and the mineralogical composition of the strange landscape. Indeed, the photos will be four times sharper than those from HAMO (and well over 800 times better than the best we have now from Hubble Space Telescope). But just as in LAMO at Vesta, the priority will be on three other sets of measurements which probe even beneath the surface.
All of the mass within Ceres combines to hold Dawn in orbit, exerting a powerful gravitational grip on the ship. But as the spacecraft moves through its orbit, any variations in the internal structure of Ceres from one place to another will lead to slight perturbations of the orbit. If, for example, there is a large region of unusually dense material, even if deep underground, the craft will speed up slightly as it travels toward it. After Dawn passes overhead, the same massive feature will slightly retard its progress, slowing it down just a little.
Dawn will be in almost constant radio contact with Earth during LAMO. When it is pointing its payload of sensors at the surface, it will broadcast a faint radio signal through one of its small auxiliary antennas so exquisitely sensitive receivers on a planet far, far away can detect it. At other times, in order to transmit its findings from LAMO, it will aim its main antenna directly at Earth. In both cases, the slightest changes in speed toward or away from Earth will be revealed in the Doppler shift, in which the frequency of the radio waves changes, much as the pitch of a siren goes up and then down as an ambulance approaches and then recedes. Using this and other remarkably powerful techniques mastered for traveling throughout the solar system, navigators will carefully plot the tiny variations in Dawn's orbit and from that determine the distribution of mass throughout the interior of the dwarf planet.
The spacecraft will use its sophisticated gamma ray and neutron detector (GRaND) to determine the atomic constituents of the material on the surface and to a depth of up to about a yard (a meter). Gamma rays are a very, very high frequency form of electromagnetic radiation, beyond visible light, beyond ultraviolet, beyond even X-rays. Neutrons are very different from gamma rays. They are the electrically neutral particles in the nuclei of atoms, slightly more massive than protons, and in most elements, neutrons outnumber them too. It would be impressive enough if GRaND only detected these two kinds of nuclear radiation, but it also measures the energy of each kind. (Unfortunately, that description doesn't lend itself to such a delightful acronym).
Most of the gamma rays and neutrons are byproducts of the collisions between cosmic rays (radiation from elsewhere in space) and the nuclei of atoms in the ground. (Cosmic rays don't do this very much at Earth; rather, most are diverted by the magnetic field or stopped by atoms in the upper atmosphere.) In addition, some gamma rays are emitted by radioactive elements near the surface. Regardless of the source, the neutrons and the gamma rays that escape from Ceres and travel out into space carry a signature of the type of nucleus they came from. When GRaND intercepts the radiation, it records the energy, and scientists can translate those signatures into the identities of the atoms.
The radiation reaching GRaND, high in space above the surface, is extremely faint. Just as a camera needs a long exposure in very low light, GRaND needs a long exposure to turn Ceres' dim nuclear glow into a bright picture. Fortunately, GRaND's pictures do not depend on sunlight; regions in the dark of night are no fainter than those illuminated by the sun.
For most of its time in LAMO, Dawn will point GRaND at the surface beneath it. The typical pattern will be to make 15 orbital revolutions, lasting about 3.5 days, staring down, measuring each neutron and each gamma ray that encounters the instrument. Simultaneously, the craft will transmit its broad radio signal to reveal the gentle buffeting by the variations in the gravitational field. On portions of its flights over the lit terrain, it will take photos and will collect spectra with VIR. Then the spacecraft will rotate to point its main antenna to distant Earth, and while it makes five more circuits in a little more than a day, it will beam its precious discoveries to the 230-foot (70-meter) antennas at NASA's Deep Space Network.
Dawn will spend more time in each successive observational phase at Ceres than the ones before. After two months in HAMO, during which it will complete about 80 orbits, the probe will devote about three months to LAMO, looping around more than 400 times. That is more than enough time to collect the desired data. Taxpayers have allocated sufficient funds to operate Dawn until June 2016, allowing some extra time for the flight team to grapple with the inevitable glitches that arise in such a challenging undertaking. As in all phases, mission planners recognize that complex operations in that remote and hostile environment probably will not go exactly according to plan, but even if some of the measurements are not completed, enough should be to satisfy all the scientific objectives.
The indefatigable explorer will work hard in LAMO. Aiming its sensors at the surface beneath it throughout its 5.5-hour orbits does not happen naturally. Dawn needs to keep turning to point them down. When it is transmitting its scientific bounty, it needs to hold steady enough to maintain Earth in the sights of its radio antenna. An essential element of the design of the spacecraft to achieve these and related capabilities was the use of three reaction wheels. By electrically changing the speed at which these gyroscope-like devices rotate, the probe can turn or stabilize itself. Because they are so important, four were included, ensuring that if any one encountered difficulty, the ambitious mission could continue with the other three.
As long-time readers know, one did falter in June 2010. Another stopped operating in August 2012. The failure of two such vital devices could have proven fatal for a mission, but thanks to the expertise, creativity, swiftness, and persistence of the members of the Dawn flight team, the prospects for completing the exploration of Ceres are bright.
› Continue reading Marc Rayman's August 2014 Dawn Journal
Dawn Journal | August 1, 2014
Using the Force: Dawn Engineers Put to the Test
Dear Studawnts and Teachers,
Patient and persistent, silent and alone, Dawn is continuing its extraordinary extraterrestrial expedition. Flying through the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the spacecraft is using its advanced ion propulsion system to travel from Vesta, the giant protoplanet it unveiled in 2011 and 2012, to Ceres, the dwarf planet it will reach in about eight months.
Most of these logs since December have presented previews of the ambitious plan for entering orbit and operating at Ceres to discover the secrets this alien world has held since the dawn of the solar system. We will continue with the previews next month. But now with Dawn three quarters of the way from Vesta to Ceres, let's check in on the progress of the mission, both on the spacecraft and in mission control at JPL.
The mission is going extremely well. Thank you for asking.
For readers who want more details, read on ...
The spacecraft, in what is sometimes misleadingly called quiet cruise, has spent more than 97 percent of the time this year following the carefully designed ion thrust flight plan needed to reshape its solar orbit, gradually making it more and more like Ceres' orbit around the sun. This is the key to how the ship can so elegantly enter into orbit around the massive body even with the delicate thrust, never greater than the weight of a single sheet of paper.
The probe is equipped with three ion engines, although it only uses one at a time. (The locations of the engines were revealed shortly after launch when the spacecraft was too far from Earth for the information to be exploited for tawdry sensationalism.) Despite the disciplined and rigorous nature of operating a spaceship in the main asteroid belt, the team enjoys adding a lighthearted touch to their work, so they refer to the engines by the zany names #1, #2, and #3.
Darth Vader and his Empire cohorts in "Star Wars" flew TIE (Twin Ion Engine) Fighters in their battles against Luke Skywalker and others in the Rebel Alliance. Outfitted with three ion engines, Dawn does the TIE Fighters one better. We should acknowledge, however, that the design of the TIE Fighters did appear to provide greater agility, perhaps at the expense of fuel efficiency. Your correspondent would concur that when you are trying to destroy your enemy while dodging blasts from his laser cannons, economy of propellant consumption probably shouldn't be your highest priority.
All three engines on Dawn are healthy, and mission controllers consider many criteria in formulating the plan for which one to use. This called for switching from thruster #2 to thruster #1 on May 27. Thruster #1 had last been used to propel the ship on Jan. 4, 2010. After well over four years of inaction in space, it came to life and emitted the famous blue-green beam of high velocity xenon ions right on schedule (at 4:19:19 pm PDT, should you wish to take yourself back to that moment), gently and reliably pushing the spacecraft closer to its appointment with Ceres.
Without the tremendous capability of ion propulsion, a mission to orbit either Vesta or Ceres alone would have been unaffordable within NASA's Discovery program. A mission to orbit both destinations would be altogether impossible. The reason ion propulsion is so much more efficient than conventional chemical propulsion is that it can turn electrical energy into thrust. Chemical propulsion systems are limited to the energy stored in the propellants.
Thanks to Dawn's huge solar arrays, electrical energy is available in abundance, even far from the brilliant sun. To make accurate predictions of the efficiency of the solar cells as Dawn continues to recede from the sun, engineers occasionally conduct a special calibration. As we described in more detail a year ago, they command the robot to rotate its panels to receive less sunlight, simulating being at greater solar distances, as the ion propulsion system is throttled to lower power levels. Following the first such calibration on June 24, 2013, we assured readers (including you) that we would repeat the calibration as Dawn continued its solar system travels. So you will be relieved to know that it was performed again on Oct. 14, Feb. 3, and May 27, and another is scheduled for Sept. 15. Having high confidence in how much power will be available for ion thrusting for the rest of the journey allows navigators to plot the best possible course. Dawn is on a real power trip!
The reason for going to Ceres, besides it being an incredibly cool thing to do, is to use the suite of sophisticated sensors to learn about this mysterious dwarf planet. (In December, we will describe what is known about Ceres, just in time for it to change with Dawn's observations.) Controllers activated and tested the cameras and all the spectrometers this summer, verifying that they remain in excellent condition and as ready to investigate the uncharted lands ahead as they were for the fascinating lands astern. The engineers also installed updated software in the primary camera in June and are ready to install it in the backup camera next month to enhance some of the devices' functions. All of the scientific instruments are normally turned off when Dawn is not orbiting one of its targets. They will be powered on again in October for a final health check before the approach phase, during which they will provide our first exciting new views of Ceres.
To achieve a successful mission at Ceres, in addition to putting the finishing touches on the incredibly intricate plans, the operations team works hard to take good care of the spacecraft, ensuring it stays healthy and on course. In the remote depths of space, the robot has to be able to function on its own most of the time, but it does so with periodic guidance and oversight by its human handlers on a faraway planet. That means they need to stay diligent, keep their skills sharp, and remain watchful for any indications of undesirable conditions. On July 22, the team received information showing that Dawn was in safe mode, a special configuration invoked by onboard software to protect the spacecraft and the mission, preventing unexpected situations from getting out of control.
As engineers inspected the trickle of telemetry, they began to discover that this was a more dire situation than they had ever seen for the distant craft. Among the surprises was an open circuit in one of the pressurized cells of the nickel-hydrogen battery, a portion of the reaction control system that was so cold that its hydrazine propellant was in danger of freezing, temperatures elsewhere on the spacecraft so low that the delicate cameras were at risk of being damaged, and a sun sensor with degraded vision. To make it still more complicated, waveguide transfer switch #5, used to direct the radio signal from the transmitter inside the spacecraft to one of its antennas for beaming to Earth, was stuck and so would not move when software instructed it to. Other data showed that part of the computer memory was compromised by space radiation. As if all that were not bad enough, one of the two star trackers, devices that recognize patterns of stars just as you might recognize constellations to determine your orientation at night without a compass or other aids, was no longer functional. Further complicating the effort to get the mission back on track was an antenna at the Deep Space Network that needed to be taken out of service for emergency repairs. And the entire situation was exacerbated by Dawn already being in its lowest altitude orbit around Ceres (the subject of next month's log), so for part of every 5.5-hour orbital revolution, it was out of contact as the world beneath it blocked the radio signal.
Confronted with an almost bewildering array of complex problems, the team of experts spent three days working through them with their usual cool professionalism, ultimately finding ways to overcome each obstacle to continue the mission. It would be extraordinarily, even unbelievably, unlikely for so many separate problems to stack up so quickly, even for a ship in the severe conditions of deep space, more than 232 million miles (374 million kilometers) from Dawn mission control on the top floor of JPL's building 264. However, it easily can happen in an operational readiness test (ORT, pronounced letter by letter and not as a word, for those readers who want to conduct their own ORTs). The telemetry came from the spacecraft simulator, just down the hall from the mission control room, and the problems were the fiendishly clever creations of the ORT mastermind. (So now you may calm down, reassured that the scenario just described did not actually happen.)
The team conducted ORTs (and even an ORTathon) before launch in 2007, before Vesta in 2011, and as recently as May 2013. They will hold another in August.
While mission controllers exercised their skills in the ORT, the real spacecraft continued streaking through the asteroid belt, its interplanetary travels bringing it 45 thousand miles (73 thousand kilometers) closer to Ceres each day. But it is not only the Dawn team members who are part of this adventure. The stalwart explorer is transporting everyone who ever gazes in wonder at the night sky, everyone who yearns to know what lies beyond the confines of our humble home, and everyone awed by the mystery, the grandeur, and the immensity of the cosmos. Fueled by their passionate longing, the journey holds the promise of exciting new knowledge and thrilling new insights as a strange world, glimpsed only from afar for more than two centuries, is soon to be unveiled.
Dawn is 4.2 million miles (6.7 million kilometers) from Ceres. It is also 2.67 AU (248 million miles, or 399 million kilometers) from Earth, or 995 times as far as the moon and 2.63 times as far as the sun today. Radio signals, traveling at the universal limit of the speed of light, take 44 minutes to make the round trip
Dr. Marc D. Rayman
6:00 p.m. PDT July 31, 2014
› Read more of Marc Rayman's Dawn Journals
Slice of History | July 29, 2014
Ranger 7 Spacecraft Model
Several different full-size and scale models were made of the Ranger spacecraft (Block I, II, and III configurations). Scale models were used by the projects at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at a time when there was no computer animation. Engineers and scientists used them to visualize the spacecraft and its orientation as it reached the moon or a planet.
Three members of the Ranger 7 television experiment team stand near a scale model and lunar globe. From left: Ewen Whitaker, Dr. Gerard Kuiper, and Ray Heacock. Kuiper was the director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona. Whitaker was a research associate at LPL. Heacock was the Lunar and Planetary Instruments section chief at JPL.
› Learn more about the Ranger 7 mission
This post was written for "Historical Photo of the Month," a blog by Julie Cooper of JPL's Library and Archives Group.
Dawn Journal | June 30, 2014
Dawn's Downward Spiral to Reveal New World Views
Dear Mastodawns,
Deep in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, far from Earth, far from the sun, far now even from the giant protoplanet Vesta that it orbited for 14 months, Dawn flies with its sights set on dwarf planet Ceres. Using the uniquely efficient, whisper-like thrust of its remarkable ion propulsion system, the interplanetary adventurer is making good progress toward its rendezvous with the uncharted, alien world in about nine months.
Dawn's ambitious mission of exploration will require it to carry out a complex plan at Ceres. In December, we had a preview of the "fapproach phase," and in January, we saw how the high velocity beam of xenon ions will let the ship slip smoothly into Ceres's gravitational embrace. We followed that with a description in February of the first of four orbital phases (with the delightfully irreverent name RC3), in which the probe will scrutinize the exotic landscape from an altitude of 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers). We saw in April how the spacecraft will take advantage of the extraordinary maneuverability of ion propulsion to spiral from one observation orbit to another, each one lower than the one before, and each one affording a more detailed view of the exotic world of rock and ice. The second orbit, at an altitude of about 2,730 miles (4,400 kilometers), known to insiders (like you, faithful reader) as "survey orbit," was the topic of our preview in May. This month, we will have an overview of the plan for the third and penultimate orbital phase, the "high altitude mapping orbit" (HAMO).
(The origins of the names of the phases are based on ancient ideas, and the reasons are, or should be, lost in the mists of time. Readers should avoid trying to infer anything at all meaningful in the designations. After some careful consideration, your correspondent chose to use the same names the Dawn team uses rather than create more helpful descriptors for the purposes of these logs. What is important is not what the different orbits are called but rather what amazing new discoveries each one enables.)
It will take Dawn almost six weeks to descend to HAMO, where it will be 910 miles (1,470 kilometers) high, or three times closer to the mysterious surface than in survey orbit. As we have seen before, a lower orbit, whether around Ceres, Earth, the sun, or the Milky Way galaxy, means greater orbital velocity to balance the stronger gravitational grip. In HAMO, the spacecraft will complete each loop around Ceres in 19 hours, only one quarter of the time it will take in survey orbit.
In formulating the HAMO plans, Dawn's human colleagues (most of whom reside much, much closer to Earth than the spacecraft does) have taken advantage of their tremendous successes with HAMO1 and HAMO2 at Vesta. We will see below, however, there is one particularly interesting difference.
As in all observation phases at Ceres (and Vesta), Dawn's orbital path will take it from pole to pole and back. It will fly over the sunlit side as it travels from north to south and then above the side in the deep darkness of night on the northward segment of each orbit. This polar orbit ensures a view of all latitudes. As Ceres pirouettes on its axis, it presents all longitudes to the orbiting observer. The mission planners have choreographed the celestial pas de deux so that in a dozen revolutions, Dawn's camera can map nearly the entire surface.
Rather than mapping once, however, the spacecraft will map Ceres up to six times. One of Dawn's many objectives is to develop a topographical map, revealing the detailed contours of the terrain, such as the depths of craters, the heights of mountains, and the slopes and variations of plains. To do so, it will follow the same strategy employed so successfully at Vesta, by taking pictures at different angles, much like stereo imaging. The spacecraft will make its first HAMO map by aiming its camera straight down, photographing the ground directly beneath it. Then it will map the surface again with the camera pointed in a slightly different direction, and it will repeat this for a total of six maps, or six mapping "cycles." With views from up to six different perspectives, the landscape will pop from flat images into its full three dimensionality. (As with all the plans, engineers recognize that complex and challenging operations in the forbidding, unforgiving depths of space do not always go as intended. So they plan to collect more data than they need. If some of the images, or even entire maps, are not acquired, there should still be plenty of pictures to use in revealing the topography.)
In addition to acquiring the photos, Dawn will make other measurements in HAMO. During some of the cycles, the camera will use its color filters to glean more about the nature of the surface. The visible and infrared mapping spectrometer will collect spectra to help scientists determine the composition of the surface, its temperature, and other properties.
Exquisitely accurate radio tracking of the spacecraft in its orbit, as indicated by the Doppler shift (the change in frequency, or pitch, as the craft moves toward or away from Earth) and by the time it takes radio signals to make the round trip from Earth, allows navigators to determine the strength of the gravitational tugging. That can be translated into not only the mass of Ceres but also how the mass is distributed in its interior. In August, when we look ahead to the fourth and final science phase of the Ceres mission, the low altitude mapping orbit, we will explain this in greater detail.
Although still too high for anything but the weakest indication of radiation from Ceres, the gamma ray and neutron detector will measure the radiation environment in HAMO. This will yield a useful reference for the stronger signals it will detect when it is closer.
There is a noteworthy difference between how Dawn will operate in HAMO and how it operated in HAMO1 and HAMO2 at Vesta and even how it will operate in survey orbit at Ceres.
› Continue reading Marc Rayman's June 30, 2014, Dawn Journal
Dawn Journal | June 3, 2014
Survey Orbit: A Truly Extaordinary View
Dear Dawnosaurs,
Silently streaking through the main asteroid belt, emitting a blue-green beam of xenon ions, Dawn continues its ambitious interplanetary expedition. On behalf of creatures on distant Earth who seek not only knowledge and insight but also bold adventure, the spacecraft is heading toward its appointment with Ceres. In about 10 months, it will enter orbit around the ancient survivor from the dawn of the solar system, providing humankind with its first detailed view of a dwarf planet.
This month we continue with the preview of how Dawn will explore Ceres. In December we focused on the "approach phase," and in January we described how the craft spirals gracefully into orbit with its extraordinary ion propulsion system. The plans for the first observational orbit (with a marvelously evocative name for a first examination of an uncharted world: RC3 — is that cool, or what?), at an altitude of 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers), were presented in February. Last month, we followed Dawn on its spiral descent from each orbital altitude to the next, with progressively lower orbits providing better views than the ones before. Now we can look ahead to the second orbital phase, survey orbit.
In survey orbit, Dawn will make seven revolutions at an altitude of about 2,730 miles (4,400 kilometers). At that distance, each orbit will take three days and three hours. Mission planners chose an orbit period close to what they used for survey orbit at Vesta, allowing them to take advantage of many of the patterns in the complex choreography they had already developed. Dawn performed it so beautifully that it provides an excellent basis for the Ceres encore. Of course, there are some adjustments, mostly in the interest of husbanding precious hydrazine propellant in the wake of the loss of two of the spacecraft's four reaction wheels. (Although such a loss could have dire consequences for some missions, the resourceful Dawn team has devised a plan that can achieve all of the original objectives regardless of the condition of the reaction wheels.)
We had a preview of survey orbit at Vesta four years ago, and we reviewed the wonderfully successful outcome in September 2011. When we develop the capability to travel backwards in time, we will insert a summary of what occurred in survey orbit at Ceres here: _______…… Well, nothing yet. So, let's continue with the preview.
As in all phases at Ceres (and Vesta), Dawn follows what space trajectory experts (and geeks) call a polar orbit. The ship's course will take it above the north pole, and then it will sail south over the side bathed in the light of the sun. After flying over the south pole, Dawn will head north. Although the surface beneath it will be dark, the spacecraft will be high enough that it will not enter the dwarf planet's shadow. The distant sun will constantly illuminate the large solar arrays.
The leisurely pace in survey orbit allows the explorer to gather a wealth of data during the more than 37 hours on the day side. It will train its science camera and visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) on the surface lit by the sun. The camera will collect hundreds of images using all seven of its color filters. It will reveal details three times finer than it observed in RC3 orbit and 70 times sharper than the best we have from the Hubble Space Telescope. VIR will acquire millions of spectra to help scientists determine the minerals present as well as the temperature and other properties of the surface. While the sensors are pointed at the surface, the main antenna cannot simultaneously be aimed at Earth, so the robot will store its pictures and spectra.
One Cerean day, the time it takes Ceres to rotate once on its axis, is a little over nine hours. (For comparison, Earth, as some of its residents and visitors know, takes 24 hours. Jupiter turns in just under 10 hours, Vesta in five hours and 21 minutes, and your correspondent's cat Regulus in about 0.5 seconds when chasing a laser spot.) So as Dawn travels from the north pole to the south pole, Ceres will spin underneath it four times. Dawn will be close enough that even the wide field of view of its camera won't capture the entire disc below, from horizon to horizon, but over the course of the seven orbits, the probe will see most of the surface. As in developing the plan for Vesta, engineers (like certain murine rodents and male humans) are keenly aware that as careful, as thorough, and as diligent as they are, their schemes don't always execute perfectly. In the unknown, forbidding depths of space with a complex campaign to carry out, glitches can occur and events can go awry. The plan is designed with the recognition that some observations will not be achieved, but those that are promise great rewards.
Most of the time, the spacecraft will gaze straight down at the alien terrain immediately beneath it. But on the first, second, and fourth passages over the day side of Ceres, it will spend some of the time looking at the limb against the blackness of space. Pictures with this perspective will not only be helpful for establishing the exact shape of the dwarf planet but they also will provide some very appealing views for eager sightseers on Earth.
In addition to using the camera and VIR, Dawn will measure space radiation with its gamma ray and neutron detector (GRaND). GRaND will still be too far from Ceres to sense the nuclear particles emanating from it, but recording the radiation environment will provide a valuable context for the sensitive measurements it will make at lower altitudes.
When Dawn's orbit takes it over the dark side, it will turn away from the dwarf planet it is studying and toward the planet it left in 2007 where its human colleagues still reside. With its 5-foot (1.52-meter) main antenna, it will spend most of the day and a half radioing its precious findings across uncounted millions of miles (kilometers) of interplanetary space. (Well, you won't have to count them, but we will.)
In addition to the instrument data it encodes, Dawn's radio signal will allow scientists and engineers to measure how massive Ceres is. By observing the Doppler shift (the change in frequency caused by the spacecraft's motion), they can determine how fast the ship moves in orbit. Timing how long the signals (traveling at the universal limit of the speed of light) take to make the round trip, navigators can calculate how far the probe is and hence where it is in its orbit. Combining these (and including other information as well) allows them to compute how strongly Ceres pulls on its orbital companion. The strength of its gravitational force reveals its heft.
By the end of survey orbit, Dawn will have given humankind a truly extraordinary view of a dwarf planet that has been cloaked in mystery despite more than 200 years of telescopic studies. As the exotic world of rock and ice begins to yield its secrets to the robotic ambassador from Earth, we will be transported there. We will behold new landscapes that will simultaneously quench our thirst for exploration and ignite our desire for even more. It is as humankind reaches ever farther into the universe that we demonstrate a part of what it means to be human, combining our burning need for greater understanding with our passion for adventure and our exceptional creativity, resourcefulness and tenacity. As we venture deeper into space, we discover much of what lies deep within ourselves.
Dawn is 7.2 million miles (12 million kilometers) from Ceres. It is also 1.87 AU (174 million miles, or 280 million kilometers) from Earth, or 695 times as far as the moon and 1.84 times as far as the sun today. Radio signals, traveling at the universal limit of the speed of light, take 31 minutes to make the round trip.
› Continue reading Marc Rayman's May 31, 2014, Dawn Journal


text: Augmented Reality – the next step in modern marketingJanuary 31, 2017No escape from reality? AR – the next step in modern marketing When you think about it, Virtual Reality has been seen as a thing of the future for around 25 years now. Those who are old enough [...] Read More 0

subset: commoncrawl


text:
WeeklyBeats.com / Music / spry's music / Redirected Momentum (WB22)
Almost hit the one hour mark. Spent 35 minutes writing patterns, 20 minutes putting a structure together, 10 minutes fxing and sidechaining, and 5 minutes to do a final mix. Total time 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Kept it pretty simple this week cause ive got a lot of other things on my mind but im happy with what i ended up with.
This submission is licensed by author under Copyright All rights reserved
simple & effective - very nice!
Very nice pumping tunes, relaxing


text:
Interlanguage - What is it
A term coined by Selinker - 1972, as an attempt to describe the developing L2 system - all the linguistic levels
Refers to "the language system that each learner constructs an any given point in development"
Marked the transition from the older school of contrastive analysis
Differs systematically from both the native language and the target language BUT linked to them
Nature of Interlanguage
The learner's interlanguage changes over time and with exposure to the TL
Rules that learners' construct - similar to those of the native speakers BUT differ in many respects
Over the course of time - learners progress but the process may not be observable
Characteristics of Interlanguage:
What lies behind Interlanguage?
Cross - linguistic Influences and transfer
English as a lingua franca
E Tarone, 747 - 752
Shawn Ford
Gang Dong, 42 - 44
Lourdes Ortega, 110-112, 116 - 118
Gang Dong
Development of L2 Morphology
Concept Oriented Approach
Learners express particular concept
Most important in LA
How you say things --> not that important
-- >
focuses on
what you say
Learners' procedure in phases
Pragmatic Means---> scaffolding
she steal bread/and run away from the shop
listeners assume that things happened in the same order as have been told
Lexical Means added:
then the car of police come/ so he ride this car/ next the woman ride too
use of temporal, locative adverbials, connectives such as "then" to indicate time
Morphological Means added
---->indicates temporality
and suddenly she cried/ and later she tried to run away
tense indicates temporal relations
Coined by Selinker in 1972 - "permanent lack of mastery of a target language TL despite continuous exposure to the TL input, adequate motivation to improve and sufficient opportunity to practice"
Several Cases of fossilization
Alberto (Schumann 1976) = unable to move beyond basic English
Patty (Lardiere 2007) = instructed learner (L1 - Mandarin) - achieved a very high level of competence in L2 BUT ceased in L2 bound verbal morphology
Geng and Fong (Han 2000 - 2006) = adults (Chinese L1 background) + optimal learning circumstances in L2 English but failed to use passive in obligatory contexts
Instruction, Development and Learners' Readiness
Learner readiness (Pienemann 1984-89) Instruction" is constrained by development - Teachers can only hope to teach successfully what learners are developmentally ready to learn".
Fewer errors - not always a good thing
For some searchers: F is inevitable - All learners are expected to fossilize,and some do sooner and others do it later.
For others researchers,fossilization affects some learners but not others.
Ortega p134
Ortega p134-135
Ortega p135-136
Ortega p138-139
Interlanguage Features
The one-to-one principle: one meaning is always expressed by one form - no taking the risk of looking for synonyms
The transfer to somewhere principle: a grammatical form occurs many times as a result of transfer in the Interlanguage
The relexification principle: students use L1 sentence structure filled in with L2 lexical items
Why do we care?
Selinker (1992: 218): "no other subject
matter needs to integrate pedagogical concerns as we do"
Improve the process of L2 learning
Comparisons between languages - enable teachers make their students aware of the differences and similarities
Teachers would be able to identify their students' errors
Aid in designing and selecting proper course books for L2 students
Rosa Muñoz Luna, 69 - 70
General Purpose:
compare interlanguage requests of advanced ESL learners with British native speakers on a written discourse completion task
187 students (95ESLlearners/92L1native speakers
- a short description of the scenario, which specified the setting, the familiarity and the social power between the participants - then asked to complete the dialogue by performing a request for an assignment extension from their lecturer.
Interlanguage Requests in Academic
Encounters -
Tiana Ken prezi
Diane Larsen Freeman
"Language is a dynamic ,constantly evolving,and self-organizing."
"An individual's language resources are ever mutable,and their development continues,even development of the L1 "(MacWhinney 1999)
"Studies of fossilization in sla" Han -Odlin 2005
Steve Kaufmann- Linguist
Kogetsidis et al, 2007
By: Marie Pouilles
Tamara Melicova
Maria Korai
Learners underused the politeness marker "please" as compared to NS
Learners used fewer apologies but overused imposition minimisers and preparators in external modification as compared to NS.
Both groups employed the grounder as the most frequent external modification device
NS made more frequent use of impersonal perspective combined with formulaic constructions
"Excuse me.
Because something happened to my family
(grounder)I need a few days off.
I understand it is very soon to ask something likethis but
(disarmer) I would be very pleased if you give me these days"
"I'm really sorry
(apology)but I will have to take some leave at shortnotice
as my grandmother has requested that I see her. I don't think she's got very long
Individual Situations
Kogetsidis et al, 2007
L2 learners' pragmatic performance may present deviations from that of native speakers
Sometimes their deviations may lead to pragmatic and sociolinguistic failure
mplications for ESL teaching
Need for the development of pragmatic competence in L2 learning
1)Pragmatics should be included in second language teaching
2)Textbook materials need to be more culture - oriented
Concept Oriented Approach is
interested in mistakes in grammar
The main focus is to understand the
of the words.
How the concept is expressed?
How the expression of the concept changes over the time?
Present Remotely
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Maria Koraion 11 December 2014
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text:
"Until 2013 women were formally excluded from direct ground combat. That may be changing for some women now. Yet deployments to combat zones inherently involve risk of combat exposures because there is no front line in the current conflict."Rachel Sayko Adams, a scientist at the Institute for Behavioral Health at the University of South Carolina
Women didn't officially serve in ground combat positions until 2013. However, many of them did their jobs in real-time combat settings, often under direct fire. Despite this, research on how deployment affects women is limited. Scientists discussed the need for more research and other post-deployment concerns that affect female service members during a webinar hosted by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.
Where's the Data?
Almost half of female service members eligible for care through the Defense Health Agency do not use it. This lack of use makes it harder to gather data on their post-combat experiences. Also, most of the post-deployment studies on PTSD and substance use disorder occurred before women openly served in combat. This means most deployment-related studies do not accurately reflect the experiences of women.
Unclear Reporting
In addition to routine post-deployment screenings, service members can self-report about their health and wellness. Reports from female service members show higher instances of emotional difficulties, overall poor health, and many are at risk for alcohol abuse. They also revealed higher rates of PTSD and depression.
In post-deployment surveys, women reported fewer instances of traumatic brain injury and blast exposure than men. In contrast, they reported the same percentage of assault and injury. This may indicate that the reported incidents were not all related to conflict with enemy forces, said Rachel Sayko Adams, a scientist at the Institute for Behavioral Health at the University of South Carolina.
Mary Jo Larson, a senior scientist with the Institute for Behavioral Health, noted more female service members report experiences of sexual assault than male service members. She added that sexual assault is a contributing factor for PTSD and alcohol abuse among women.
"There is a need for additional sensitive screening to determine if assaults reported [post-deployment] are related to sexual assault," Adams said.
Missed Opportunities
"We also found that Army women were less likely than Army men to receive substance use treatment the year before deployment'" Wooten said, "so although 12% of those women and 14% of those men had a substance use diagnosis before they deployed, women were less likely than men to receive treatment." Current substance use disorder rates among male and female service members returning from deployment are about equal, and both genders under report. But, without more research, it is unclear what factors may put female service members at risk for substance use disorder or PTSD.
"We call it a missed opportunity because we think there should be ways to increase provider recognition that these risks, especially for alcohol, could be associated with other positive screens," Larson said.
Are you a provider who treats service members with PTSD or substance use disorder? Find clinical resources on the Deployment Health Clinical Center website . If you or someone you know is struggling with PTSD or substance abuse, the DCoE Outreach Center is available 24/7 to answer questions and guide you to helpful resources. Call 866-966-1020, email or live chat.


text:
ephemerals album launch party
Tickets: £9.50 - 12.50
Times: 7-11pm
Soundcrash presents…
"egg tooth" album launch party
April 11th 2017
Rich Mix
Supported by
Izo Fitzroy
The jazz / soul virtuosos launch their stunning and hotly-tipped new album at east London's most celebrated arts venue
ephemerals' star has risen steadily since they broke onto the scene a couple of years back with their critically acclaimed Hype Machine #1 debut album – nothin is easy..
'egg tooth' sees London songwriter Hillman Mondegreen and US singer Wolfgang Valbrun combine beautifully, marrying direct and honest lyricism with powerful vocal delivery. Pushing the boundaries of their craft, this release unashamedly emanates Jazz, Afrobeat and Psychedelia which galvanises the Soul and R&B that remains at the heart of the band.
This 7 piece band's stunning live performances have made them festival headliners in Europe and will be complemented for the London launch show by the string section with which they recorded the new album.
Boasting previous support from BBC 6 music (Craig Charles Gilles Peterson), Radio 1 (Huw Stephens, Phil Taggart, Friction and Target) and a playlist on Radio 1 and 1Xtra this will be their only London show before they embark on their European tour.
Don't miss this chance to catch one of the UK's most promising soul acts at the cusp of their next next big leap forward at the stunning Rich Mix.


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Changed the rules
EDIT: work work work work work
Last page for most recent work
Day 1
Changed the rules
EDIT: work work work work work
Last page for most recent work
Day 1
Last edited by Krato; November 6th, 2010 at 02:26 PM.
reallynice stuff, love how you did the painting
Day 2
WIP painting, need to catch some sleep so i will work on it again and hopefully finish it by tomorrow, also 25 self portraits will likely be accompanying it.
Wow dude, 25 selfportraits a day ! You're crazy I wish you good luck to reach your goal ! Nice still lifes btw, on the foirst one, maybe there aren't enough darker values ! Anyway, keep it up !
contact: kikindaface.art at gmail.com
hehe, thats what we call dedication.....awesome!! keep goin
join the thunderdome
The Hyperactive SSG
fellow artists:
HAHA THIS IS GUNNA BE RAD WHEN YOU HAVE A 100 DAYS UNDER YER BELT it WILL BE COOL TO SEE THE PROGRESSION WHEN YER ALL DONE THESE LOOK GREAT SO FAR KEEP W/ THE GOODS!!!! YOU CAN DO EETTTTT!
heres the 25 self portraits for today. Took longer then i thought and i had a huge headache during the first 5 or 6.
great start!!!!!
lol goodluck dude... : )
Luck has nothin' to do with it. More more more! You're doing great.
My Sketchbook ---- Blog ---- deviantArt
25 selfportraits a dayy! great exercise.
your faces are going to look awesome when your done with this!
keep on rockin.
Nice! This is a crazy pace to keep up but if you can do it... major props to you my friend.
Sansan: Thanks!
Dile_: Thanks Dile, these are allot better then that apple i posted on facebook.
Blightedart: Thanks!
Glaedr: Thats the goal, Thanks
cdejong: Thanks!
Ok, so i have to make some changes temporarily for the paintings, Since im going to SCAD day on October 10th, i need to set up a small portfolio for there portfolio review, so im going to complete as many digital paintings as i can before that time. I'm still going to focus on the self portraits which by the way take a long time!
I must say though, all those self portraits which dont look to difficult to do on here, take a long time, like 3 and a half hours. However im learning SO much from them so the trade off is fine by me!
Here is how im living:
Wake up 6am
Drive to school 6:30
School 7-3:30
come home at 4:00
Have dinner until 4:30
Do self 25 portraits 4:30-8
Paint digital picture 8-10:30
Surf the web or something 10:30-11:00
Post my work: 11:00+
Basically wake up, go to school, come back from school, draw and paint nonstop, then i sleep..
Also edit: my face hurts after i make all those poses again and again :p
Last edited by Krato; September 22nd, 2009 at 12:10 AM. Reason: why not right?
Dude..... we need to have an msn chat
Nice stuff so far. Make sure you put in little reward breaks after you finish the 25 portraits. Maybe sketching from imagination?
Yeah you defiantly wanna do some imagination stuff to apply all the studies you've done.
Keep at it!
Very good paintings, I really like them.
Developed Actively by the makers of the Best Amazon Podcast


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YES! I am linking you to Allkpop to watch, same reasons as before.
Seen too many videos and stills from this show?? Yeah...me too >.< However, these are the official vids and of course the best quality, which never last long, also, some views you may not have seen (though how that might be possible I am not too sure).
Men in swimsuits! Yyaaaaahhhh well kinda lmao, long legged and most with Tshirts on as well. And Minho steals almost the whole show, winning Gold in the Mens Freestyle 50 meter. Almost all my fav's are here! Infinite in the house! Teen Top in the house! Shinee and MBLAQ in the House!!! Once again I am linking you cause yeahhhh that CrazyCarrot takes down the vids fast, so watch fast! And of course, Enjoy! ^.^
Of course, have to add my two cents here ^.^
Opening Ceremony Seen it...still fun to see them marching in all official, Shinee marches with F(x) and is that Jungmo I see???? *sigh* 2PM's Nichkhun recites the official promise in english, nicely done Nichk!
Male 50m Sprint – Prelims 1 & 2 Minho, why so serious? Oh yeah, cause you are the SPORTS MAN! Kinda close here with Joonie, but, he wins.
Male 50m Sprint – Prelims 3 & 4 Match 3 Taemin...dead last. Match 4 Jokwon of 2AM and yesssss Infinite's Sungjong!!! Baby don't swivel your hips while running >.< JoKwon wins!
Male 50m Sprint – Prelims 5 & 6 Match 5 Onew...dead last.
Male 50m Sprint – Prelims 7 & 8 Match 7 Key, 2PM's Chansung and Infinite! Chansung wins! Key...dead last, is anyone else from Shinee even trying? >.< Match 8 Infinite's Dongwoo, Nichkhun, Mir, UKiss and this is where Mir stops and does the "jazz hands" Aigooo! UKiss's Dongho wins.
Man 50m Sprint - Semis 1 2AM's Jokwon, Z:EA, UKISS aaAAAaaand Jokwon wins.
Male 50m Sprint – Semis 2 Minho, Chansung, UKISS Dongho and Z:EA's Dongjun wins.
I'm skipping to the Mens swimming, you can watch the womens stuff on allkpop ^.^
Watch for the celebrity audience, there were no fancams of this as there were no fans allowed due to the sensors having hissy fits again. Omo how DARE the men have bulges and the women have breasts! Anyway...
Male 50m Freestyle Swimming – Prelims 1
Joonie and Minho...guess who wins? The dives are hysterical! Comical even!
Male 50m Freestyle Swimming-Prelims 2
Teen Top Yeah!
Male 50m Freestyle Swimming Final
Minho, Eli and yay! Niel!!!! <3
Nice dive Niel!!! But Minho surges ahead to win the Gold!!!! Yata!!!! ^.^
Okies, this was Part 1, the girls are up next in Part 2, not aired yet.
As always with CrazyCarrot, though MMR is thankful for the videos, watch fast! These are never up for long. Enjoy! ^.^
Allkpop link below


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The report on the global Laboratory Filtration market is aimed at informing stakeholders about the prevailing market dynamics. It informs them about the impact of the strategies adopted by the leading enterprises on the market. The impact of the latest technological advancements and regulatory policies on the overall operations of the global Laboratory Filtration market is also studied in the report detail. The growth trajectory of the Laboratory Filtration market between 2016 and 2021 has been further examined in the report.
The report presents in-depth insights on the factors driving or restraining the global Laboratory Filtration market. The effect of the prevailing demand and supply forces on the overall market operation has also been analyzed in the report. For the purpose of the study, the global Laboratory Filtration market has been segmented based on various parameters. The segmentation carried out based on its regional distribution will help readers gain relevant knowledge about the most lucrative regions for the Laboratory Filtration market. Policies adopted by vendors based on distinct demand and supply trends across these regional segments have been elaborated on to present strategic recommendations for both existing players and new entrants in the market.
For more info, get a Sample PDF: http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=769636&type=E
Information compiled in the report has been obtained from trusted sources. The data thus obtained is presented in a coherent chapter-wise format. These chapters are further interspersed with relevant graphs and statistics, to provide an executive-level blueprint of the prevailing trends in the global Laboratory Filtration market.
In the concluding sections the report includes profiles of some of the most prominent enterprises operating in the global Laboratory Filtration market. The developmental plans and policies adopted by these companies are examined. The report also weighs out strengths and weaknesses of these companies. The effect of their expansion goals on the overall operations of the global Laboratory Filtration market is also studied in the report in detail.
Table of Contents
1 Industry Overview of Laboratory Filtration
1.1 Definition and Specifications of Laboratory Filtration
1.2 Classification of Laboratory Filtration
1.3 Applications of Laboratory Filtration
1.4 Industry Chain Structure of Laboratory Filtration
1.5 Industry Overview and Major Regions Status of Laboratory Filtration
2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Laboratory Filtration
2.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of Laboratory Filtration
2.2 Equipment Suppliers and Price Analysis of Laboratory Filtration
2.3 Labor Cost Analysis of Laboratory Filtration
2.4 Other Costs Analysis of Laboratory Filtration
2.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Laboratory Filtration
2.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Laboratory Filtration
Browse Complete "Global Laboratory Filtration Market Professional Survey Report 2016 Industry Research Report" With TOC @ http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-laboratory-filtration-market-research-report-to-2020.htm
3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Laboratory Filtration
3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Laboratory Filtration Major Manufacturers in 2015
3.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Laboratory Filtration Major Manufacturers in 2015
3.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Laboratory Filtration Major Manufacturers in 2015
3.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Laboratory Filtration Major Manufacturers in 2015
4 Global Laboratory Filtration Overall Market Overview
4.1 2011-2016E Overall Market Analysis
4.2.1 2011-2015 Global Laboratory Filtration Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis
4.2.2 2015 Laboratory Filtration Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)
4.3 Sales Analysis
4.3.1 2011-2015 Global Laboratory Filtration Sales and Growth Rate Analysis
4.3.2 2015 Laboratory Filtration Sales Analysis (Company Segment)
4.4 Sales Price Analysis
5 Laboratory Filtration Regional Market Analysis
5.1 North America Laboratory Filtration Market Analysis
5.1.3 North America 2011-2016E Laboratory Filtration Sales Price Analysis
5.1.4 North America 2015 Laboratory Filtration Market Share Analysis
5.2 Europe Laboratory Filtration Market Analysis
5.2.1 Europe Laboratory Filtration Market Overview
5.2.4 Europe 2015 Laboratory Filtration Market Share Analysis
5.3.2 Japan 2011-2016E Laboratory Filtration Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis
5.3.3 Japan 2011-2016E Laboratory Filtration Sales Price Analysis
5.3.4 Japan 2015 Laboratory Filtration Market Share Analysis
5.4 China Laboratory Filtration Market Analysis
5.4.1 China Laboratory Filtration Market Overview
Trending Report-
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GraphicRiver Modern Corporate Business Tri-Fold 8086307
Category: Print Template | Comment: ( 0 )
GraphicRiver Modern Corporate Business Tri-Fold 8086307
Print Template \ Brochures \ Corporate
Template \ Modern \ Print \ Minimalist \ Minimal \ Letter \ Look \ Professiol \ Fold
Print Template - Modern Corporate Business Tri-Fold 8086307 by studiorgb @ GraphicRiver
Print Template \ Brochures \ Corporate
Graphics Files Included: Photoshop PSD; Layered: Yes; Minimum Adobe CS Version: CS; Print Dimensions: 8.5x11.
Modern Corporate Business Tri-Fold
Professional, clean Trifold Brochure for Business. All is layered,grouped and named.Easy to edit font,text,color,image and more…Smart object used.Easily you can replace your photo here. Perfect for business promotion.
Print dimensions.
- 8.5×11" + .25" bleed
- Images are Smart Objects
- Easy editable text
- CMYK @ 300 DPI – Print-ready
- 100% scalable
- Perfectly Aligned
- Open in All CS Version
- Organised layers and grouped
- 0.25 inch Bleed Area and Guideline
The pack includes.
- 2 Photoshop files
- Big Noodle Titling, download here.
- Lato, download here.
Used image is NOT included in the download, this is just for illustration purpose. You can find link of used image with downloaded main file. You can quickly replace your image with the photo you want!
If you have some questions, please contact me through my profile page.
If you like this file please rate it, thank you.
Colorful Color Splash Modern Trifold; Travel and Tourism Trifold Brochure; Minimal Multipurpose Business Tri-Fold; Dance Angel Party Flyer; Modern and Fashion Photography Studio Tri-Fold; Fiesta Loca Playa Flyer Vol.2; Boom Boom Party Night Flyer.
Keywords: a4, annual, book, booklet, brochure, business, catalog, clean, conceptual, corporate, customize, designer, elegant, flexible, flyer, identity, letter, look, minimal, minimalist, modern, print, professiol, psd template, report, simple, template, tri-fold, trifold.


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Fly Fishing Learning Center
My Learning Center
Sign in
Video Lessons
1: The Basics of Fly Fishing
2: Bass Fly Fishing
3: Pike & Muskie Fly Fishing
4: Basics Of Stream Fishing
5: Wet Fly & Nymph Fishing
6: Dry Fly Fishing
7: Streamer Fishing
8: Reading Water
9: Stillwater Trout
10: Salmon & Steelhead Fly Fishing
11: Fly Fishing Saltwater Flats
12: Offshore/Near-Shore Fly Fishing
13: Fly Casting
14: Fishing Close to Home
15: Choosing Equipment
Advanced Tactics
One Minute Fly Tying Tips
Fly Tying Videos
Dry Flies
Emerger Flies
Nymph Flies
Salmon / Steelhead Flies
Salt / Bass / Streamer Flies
General Fly Fishing
Bass, Pike, Carp
Animated Knots
Choosing Equipment
Equipment Articles
Equipment Videos
Family Fly Fishing
Basic Quizzes
Advanced Quizzes
Fish Flash Cards
Trout Fishing
Saltwater Fishing
Steelhead Fishing
Sporting Essays
Tippet Chart
Shop Orvis
Women's Fly Fishing
Fly Rods
Fly Reels
Fly Line & Backing
Leaders & Tippet
Wading Boots
Equipment Used
Helios 2 4-weight 8'6" Fly Rod
Hydros Superfine
SuperStrong Plus Leaders
Gale Force Backpack
Women's drirelease® Long-Sleeved Quarter-Zip Tee
Fishing Droppers
How to Set Up Droppers
How to Set Up Droppers
(1 of 1)
Fly fishing with droppers allows you to fish both dry fly and nymphs matched to current hatches, trout behavior, and water conditions. Learn how to set up droppers for fly fishing with nymphs
Show / Hide Video Transcript
Fly fishing with droppers is common and extremely effective. It allows you to fish both the dry fly and a nymph matched to current hatches, trout behavior, and water conditions. The most important thing to consider when fishing dropper rigs is to fish dry flies and nymphs for specific reasons, to be decisive in what we're trying to accomplish. If you blindly tie an 18-inch dropper nymph below a hopper pattern and think you're effectively dropper fishing, you may be missing the point. We'll cover a variety of scenarios in this series.
Let's start by looking at two common methods to tie the dropper setup. A special notice to always use the same or lighter tippet at the tie on the nymph. In the first dropper setup, tie your dry fly to the end of your leader or tippet using a clinch, improved clinch or non-slip loop knot. Tie in a length of tippet using a clinch or improved clinch knot to the bend of your hook. It's fastest to pre-tie the clinch knot via a loop around your finger and to try to tie the clinch knot on the hook. Then tie your nymph to the end of that tippet with a clinch or non-slip loop knot.
In the second dropper setup, tie your dry fly on to the end of your leader or tippet with a clinch or improved clinch knot. The dropper tippet is also tied into the eye of the hook with a clinch or improved clinch knot. While this looks a little busy at the head of the fly, its advantage is that as the fly drifts downstream, the backend of the dry fly has no tippet hanging from it. This is a good trade-off since this is what the fish usually sees first.
There's an alternative setup that has some interesting applications. In this setup, there is no fixed knot at the eye of the dry fly and the nymph can slowly drop deeper as it drifts, as the tippet slides through the eye of the dry fly. From the end of your leader, attach 10 to 18 inches of tippet with a double surgeon's knot.
Feed that tippet through the eye of your dry fly and add another six to 24 inches length of tippet with a double surgeon's knot below the dry fly.
Tie your nymph on to the end of that tippet and be sure to clip all tag ends. The double surgeon's knot below the eye of the dry fly keeps the nymph from riding up and getting tangled with the dry fly while casting. The double surgeon's knot above the eye of the dry acts as a stopper against the eye of the dry to set maximum nymph depth. This setup is very useful when fishing drop-offs, troughs or shelving ripples as the nymph is free to slowly drop to match, the depth change based on the weight of the nymph you use.
Other Resources
Fly Fishing
Fly Fishing
Fly Fishing
Fly Fishing Schools
& Adventures
Endorsed Lodges
& Guides
Orvis Fly
Fishing News
Copyright 2017, The Orvis Company Inc. Since 1856.


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Help! September 26, 2016
Lord God in heaven almighty Lord and Father, I most humbly and respectfully beseech thee to delivery my sister from the clutches of evil. Please heal her and her son's body, mind spirit and soul from damage. Please help her get legal aid and representation for her court case and for the upcoming hearing on 30 September 2016 so that she can be reunited her with her son full time. Please bind and cast out all evil spirits that are round about them . In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
- September 26, 2016 - 3:59 am
Please pray for Edward Miller, John Maples, (COPD) Joyce Ellis, Donna Hall (Cancer), Vernell Harrison, Annie Boyd (dibetes/sickness), Edward Miller, Jr. (Spinal Cord damage), Willie Jarman (Amputee) and Theresa M. Slater (Ailments) and I'm stranded in SC because my car is giving me problems. I need prayer to get it running properly and safely.
- September 26, 2016 - 2:19 pm
Lord, heal my dads body from cancer.
- September 26, 2016 - 2:22 pm
Lord, remove all the evil spirits from my husbands body,mind and soul. Let him be reunited with his family and leave the other woman. Let her lead a different path away from sin . In Jesus name Amen


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The Office of International Relations at Texas Orthopedic Hospital specializes in recognizing and meeting the needs of individuals from abroad who seek medical treatment in the United States.
We understand there may be additional stress for international patients, which is why we promise to provide warmth, grace, attention to detail and the ability to listen.
Some of the personalized services we provide for international patients includes:
- Expertise in cultural awareness and language needs
- Physician-patient assistance and coordination, including interpretation, scheduling appointments, and conference calls to foreign countries
- Estimated costs and billing information, including payment facilitation and coordination with all billing offices (hospital, physician, anesthesiology, foreign insurance)
- Hotel recommendations
- Airport transportation assistance and city orientation
- Admitting and discharge assistance
- Patient and family visitation, and representation while patient is admitted
- Interpretation and translation services for more than 40 languages are available 24/7 through the Language Line
In addition, the Office of International Relations provides services for visiting physicians and affiliated institutions, including:
- Coordination of physician visitations
- City orientation
- Referrals to other facilities
- Letters of guarantee distribution
- Consultation and advice regarding cultural and foreign matters
- Communication and consultation between health institutions, embassies and other payors
From the first initial inquiry to admission, from treatment to discharge, the Office of International Relations at Texas Orthopedic Hospital strives to ensure our international patients feel at home while away from home.
For additional information, please contact:
Bea Elizalde
Phone: (713) 799-2300 ext. 3180
Fax: (713) 794-3388


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Boss 101Action game where you have to fight against robo-animals, aliens, dinosaurs and samurais you heard right! Save the world up on your jetpack, earn money and buy upgrades that allow you to win the battle. Move with the arrow keys, shoot with the key of the space bar.
You like Boss 101? Share it with your friends !!
Share link:


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3000 years ago, Apshai ruled over Egypt from an odd temple, referred to as a "Power Pyramid". Eventually, the god and its worshipers were driven out of Egypt. They set sail with the temple's crystal capstone, the source of the god's powers. They were never seen again.
In the 1990s, several artifacts were discovered including a fully preserved golden scarab. The items went on display at the Natural History Museum in New York. However, when the curator opened the scarab, an ecto surge awakened Apshai and caused an earthquake and mass migration of insects. Apshai created several enlarged servitors to rebuild its temple. Once a human sacrifice was made and the capstone affixed to the rooftop, the crystal would absorb solar power and render Apshai invincible. It would then lead an insect army in a war meant to cleanse the planet of humanity and usher in a new age of insect rule.
Peter Venkman was chosen as the sacrifice but he was saved by Janine Melnitz. Together, the Ghostbusters destroyed the crystal. Apshai disintegrated into sand, the temple collapsed, the fissures sealed up, and the enlarged insects returned to normal.
Powers and Abilities
Apshai has abilities to control bugs and make them larger. He can also shoot lasers and with power from his crystal, can grow larger.


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If you can't give a dinosaur, a Screaming Lizard Visa Gift Card is the next best thing. Iguanas are popular pets for people who consider dogs and cats too…ordinary. But like training a dragon, learning how to train your iguana is important. This one is giving a warning to keep your distance. Iguana lovers know they can be very tame, sociable companions, however. Give Screaming Lizard Visa Gift Cards to people who love lizards, and to kids who always wanted a dragon.
The Visa Gift Card can be used wherever Visa debit cards are accepted.
Please visit our FAQ section if you have additional questions.
Click to view the Consumer Disclosures. Click to view the Terms and Conditions.


text:
Chicago, IL (PressExposure) May 13, 2009 -- STINSON Brand Innovation, Inc., a health, science, and technology brand consultancy, is proud to announce its celebrating being in business for five years. The company has grown to become the largest health, science, and technology brand consultancy in Chicago. And with the addition of StinsonGEM in Idaho, itâs the only brand consultancy of its kind in the Northwest. International partnerships have also been created with firms in Istanbul, Turkey and Mumbai, India.
To honor the companyâs fifth year in business, its website has been re-designed and re-tooled to better reflect the personality of the company and its people. Check out the new look at http://www.stinsonbrandinnovation.com
âIâm obviously very proud to be here doing what we love to do, five years later.â says Mark Stinson, president of STINSON Brand Innovation. âWeâre fulfilling our mission to accelerate the adoption of medical technologies for our clientsâ brands.â
STINSON focused its most notable website changes on several key areas including:
⢠Home page where visitors are welcomed with a portfolio slideshow and a video of the STINSON office and personality;
⢠Direct links to the company blog, http://BrandInnovator.blogspot.com, newsletter, multimedia content, and the book ForwardFast [http://www.forward-fast.com;]
⢠Our Tools page highlighting each one of the companyâs proprietary methodologies used to accelerate the brands of clients;
⢠STINSON case studies from the more than 100 brands spanning across five years of operation, featuring brand cases by product or category, by print, identity, interactive and events. This page also features the many creative awards STINSON has received.
âOur website truly establishes a positive first impression of our brand,â says Stinson. âIt now better reflects our personality, our attitude, our ethos, and our brand experience.â
To learn more, sign up to join Mark Stinson for a one-hour teleseminar, May 20 at 1pEST on How to Accelerate Your Brand.


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Random Thoughts and Chit Chat
View Single Post
March 8th, 2013, 11:48 AM
Platinum Supermommy
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 24,239
Kindergarten registration is complete, I have to say it was a little overwhelming they do it during the school day and her elementary school is K-6 so we were standing in the lobby waiting, the bell rang and kids started pouring in, packs of kids, little ones and big ones, loud ones and quiet ones. Syd looked scared and started to get all teary and then I started feeling completely panicked and like I might burst into tears too lollll BUT we made it haha, the teachers all seem sweet, I am sure it will be fine and if it isn't, well?? it has to be fine haha.
Then we went to the mall for some retail therapy
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