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Originally Posted by Hamlet
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Originally Posted by Jerry
mmmm...since orbital insertion? Wasn't that clear back in June of 2004? You mean the reaction wheels have been behaving strangely since June and no one has said one word about it publicly until now?
Could motors behaving badly perhaps be a sign that one of the equivalence principles isn't quite equivalent?
Stay tuned...
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If you read a little closer it said that scientists recently noticed episodic interference which they traced back to orbit insertion. They also said that this may be the result of the reaction wheels. |
Supernova 1987A exploded recently.
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You've yet to explain how your "theory" could explain problems in one reaction wheel and not the others. Your propensity to invoke magic when more plausible explanations are available is wearing very thin.
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Do you have a plausible answer? Nasa had a half dozen different explanations for the behavior of Galileo's wheels, which one is more plausable? Dark Matter, inflation, Dark energy, time dilation - all magic.
Actually, what I am hoping is the other way around: The behavior of the reaction wheels, if I were privy to the details, could better constrain the theory. I don't know if the wheels are using more power or less, or if there is a conflict as to the momentum expected in the wheel. Here are things that could be happening:
1) The wheel tracking roll, is recording more roll than expected - this could be true if the gravitational effects of the moon are tugging with a greater force than calculated, so the wheel gets in a tug-a-war with the other parts of the guidence system.
2) There could be certain resonant velocities in the wheels - any of the wheels - that interacts with one of the nature frequencies of Saturn - this would be the interference wave nodes involving both Saturn and her moons.
3) A true violation of the weak equivalence principle - the electrical force necessary to drive the wheel is greater or less than expected, screwing up the hysterises dampening parameters.
4) Something else.
I have always favored door 1), but this last episode sounds more like door 3), - effecting multiple types of stepper motors.
Don't you think it is odd that when both Galileo and Huygens were close to Jupiter and Saturn, reaction wheels have behaved curiously?