Ralf.Brown@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (07/19/89)
In article <2100@ge-dab.GE.COM>, harrison@sunny.DAB.GE.COM (Gregory Harrison) wrote: }The 2/3 stable points are useful despite the instability in the 3rd }dimension. There was, and may still be, a satellite placed at the libration point between } the Earth and the Sun, and set into an orbit about the line between the Earth and } the Sun such that when viewed from the Earth (with appropriate equipment, }not eyes, of course) the satellite would circumscribe the borders of the Sun. NASA } had redirected this satellite into that orbit after it had completed some } other mission. Perhaps it was called }Solar Max, I can't recall. Perhaps someone else out there would know. Maybe }the L5er ==> NSS member who originally passed the news to me may be on the net }and would know. The one satellite I can recall in such an orbit was reused as the International Comet Explorer or some such name--NASA spent 18 months maneuvering it through a complex trajectory around the earth-moon system using multiple gravity boosts to get it into solar orbit and fly by a comet, all on station-keeping fuel! It even managed to beat out all the Halley fly-bys by a few months, going to a different comet. Too bad the original mission didn't require cameras.... -- UUCP: {ucbvax,harvard}!cs.cmu.edu!ralf -=-=-=-=- Voice: (412) 268-3053 (school) ARPA: ralf@cs.cmu.edu BIT: ralf%cs.cmu.edu@CMUCCVMA FIDO: Ralf Brown 1:129/46 FAX: available on request Disclaimer? I claimed something? PROGRAM n. A magic spell cast over a computer allowing it to turn one's input into error messages. tr.v. To engage in a pastime similar to banging one's head against a wall, but with fewer opportunies for reward. -- from a flyer advertising for _Inside_Turbo_Pascal_