giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (11/13/83)
Is there any way to "recycle" IRAS? I seem to recall reading that IRAS is in orbit 500 miles up, within range of the Shuttle. Since we have been receiving such excellent data, it seems a shame we will have to wait nearly a decade for the next satellite. Especially since the satellite's death will be due to loss of LHe. I know that NASA requires that a satellite be "alive" before it will risk an orbiter to retrieve it. How soon is it until IRAS loses power and/or control in addition to LHe? Does it have a docking pin? Could NASA add a trip to IRAS onto the end of an existing orbiter mission? Should we be forming a "SAVE IRAS" mini-pac? Bruce Giles decvax!ucf-cs!giles (UUCP) UCF, Dept of Math, Orlando Fl 32816 (Snail)
grandi@kpno.UUCP (11/14/83)
Unfortunately, IRAS is in a near polar orbit (actually a sun synchronous orbit) and was launched from Vandenbergh Air Force Base, not Cape Canaveral. Therefore, until Shuttle launches from Vandnbergh start to happen (at least several years), IRAS could not be reached. In any case, I'm sure that IRAS would be very difficult to reach in orbit; probably won't fit in the shuttle bay; and the expense of such a mission would no dobut be better spent on engineering the successor missions.