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The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is launching on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and some clever work by the designers has enabled it to reach an ideal orbit with almost no work by the spacecraft. Instead much of the work is carried out by the Falcon 9 upper stage with only small adjustments made by the spacecraft’s attitude control thrusters. By doing this they were able to make the spacecraft even cheaper and fit it into the small budget available.
Now do it in KSP with a 200m/s budget.
All of my KSP orbits are like this.
fantastic explanation!
IMO one of your best videos, Scott. I am a space wanna be nerd but, I am flat out too damn dumb and a lot of the time your vids, while they do a good job explaining the science or maths, I have to watch several times and do additional research simply because I don’t have the foundation. It’s good that I have to do this as I do recognize the knowledge gained. But with this one the info and graphics plus the explanation of the cost benefits just really had me nodding along in agreement. Thank you for helping to fill in the chasm in my U.S. public education.
That is impressively clever. Gravity assists are just so magical. Well explained
Because they are NASA?
Gravity is not always your enemy.
Exoplanet hunting always gets me excited, I can’t wait to see what weird solar systems we find, maybe even a clone of our’s. That’d be freaky and cool.
Hope they put RCS for small orbit corrections. I always forget it and realize when I am on my way.
Delayed but still successfully released from F9!
Got to love the intricate details of orbital mechanics.
Cool interim while waiting for the second engine second start. Thanks!
Launch is April 18, 2018, The 30-second launch window opens at 6:51 p.m. EDT
I hope this mission goes well as that final orbit is a thing of beauty.
Lol NASA doesnt even have procedural fairings XD
Wouldn’t a good word be “astrogation”? Astronomics and navigation.
Thanks to KSP and your great videos about ksp, I understood a lot more than I should have
Fascinating, thank you.
Do reaction wheel induced vibrations cause any reduction in camera resolution or blurring?
Very interesting!! That is a very clever way of getting everything to work well – I wonder how they come up with orbits like that!
Wow, that orbit is really cool. Thanks for explaining it!
I got a mod which gave a telescope like tess in KSP
This satellite should give us some impressive imaging without getting much interference due to the orbit. I do love how you slipped into KSP talk when you first mention the apogee by using kerbal terms
This budget means ULA will never stand a chance.I like it😂
thanks to KSP, i actually know what youre talking about ;D
Tess sounds like the twin of Ticles
salt… 17 april 0:32 hours…. Its way past bedtime for me:(
Interesting, dunno about anyone else but I find the earth gets in the way quite often, sometimes it suddenly jumps up and smacks me in the face.
I’ve learned this means it’s time to go home.
I think it is delayed to wednesday. Good for me bc thats my day off.
Nice shirt with “The Long Dark” on it. I saw some people play it a long time ago.
science is awesome …
… sad they just got science denier as administrator.
The launch didn’t go as hoped ) :
Now imagine explaining this to a general TV audience…
Thanks to KSP we all know our orbital mechanics.
EFFICIENCY BRO!! *high five
What is this, a satellite for ants? You’re going to need one at least 3 times as big!
PS, 200 m/dv? I think me and a couple of mates could manage that! Just let me go get my boots first!
Holy crap, something actually brilliant and innovative from NASA. I haven’t seen that in a while.
The time is changed to Wednesday April 18
Seems like they would be implementing all cost saving techniques, on all missions, regardless of budget size… There’s always room to upgrade systems elsewhere.
@Scott Manley I really hoped you make a video about TESS’s orbit! And here you go! I can count on you. Fantastic!
They are rocket scientists… they can do stuff that are literally rocket science!
Thank you Scott – great explanation !😁👍
Thanks this really cleared up the mission for me 👍🏻
Thank you for letting me know about this launch today.
I’ll keep my eyes open for when SpaceX goes live.
Wait wait wait ! So the way forward is not more boostersssss? HERESY!!!!
I’ve done similar (unintentionally) things to my spaceship orbits in KSP.
TESS should be an exciting step as we get ready for JWST. Hopefully TESS can find some exciting exoplanets that have the potential to harbor life! Then JWST can really hone in on the best ones.
Great video! I didn’t know about the unique orbit until I watched this!
I’ve got four kerbals currently stranded on Tekto that I’m looking to get home on a shoestring dV budget.
Would love to see a follow up video and see how they did!
Thanks for breakdown. I had heard about the orbit being something out of the ordinary and this explained it much better. Thank you!
Awww I missed the “I’m Scott Manley, fly safe!”
Great explanation, as always, Scott! Thanks.
Kepler was launched in March of 2009!!
MRW When MechJeb does all the calculations for you. /s
Great video as always, and facinating how they could exploit the gravitational forces to max performance.
It got scrubbed! Sadly
I’ve been asking this myself over the last couple of days. Thank you for that.
Thanks for the updates!I love all this “Space Activity”!!
Scott, please never change the way you say “explorer.”
The launch is delayed to Wednesday!!!
TLDR:
>Be me
>NASA
>Broke AF
>Do quick mafz
>Moon finna yeet this
>Wish me luck, anons
Nice shirt Scott! You going to post any Wintermute gameplay?
go tess go…super excited….sience ROCK AND ROLL!
great video. it’s remarkable how much i understand about the terminology just from playing KSP
Now imagine explaining this to a general TV audience…
Thanks to KSP we all know our orbital mechanics.
Considering NASA does not seem like it wants to give up on costly rockets, I guess this is how we are going to get any science.
Love that faring. I’d be embarrassed if I did that in Kerbal Space Program.
How exactly do they get a gravity assist that will incline the orbit? Do they aim for a spot just “north” or “south” of the moon? And then how do they shift the phase of the orbit so that it never goes near the moon again? If they end up in an orbit with a small integer ratio with the moon that also started at the moon, they’ll go near the moon again pretty soon. So do they wait a couple orbits with a different ratio before turning into that small-integer-ratio orbit?
I am so glad I subbed to this channel a couple years ago. As always another very informative video, thank you Scott for giving us a little bit more knowledge in our day.
I feel so dumb watching this kind of video. Simple amazing how precise this complex systems are.
Thank you so much for breaking this down for us.
Kudos for the team and you!
Very informative, thank you.
Subscribed instantly.
If using the applied knowledge of scientific processes to produce a desired set of works qualifies as “engineering,” then the fitting of TESS’ orbit to its mission goals viz. the available hardware, resources & safety concerns is probably best labeled as such. No need to make up or hunt down new terms when a perfectly good one already applies. =)
Really interesting! I’m excited to see how it progresses
Are you feeling alright today?
The best NASA projects are offen low budget.
I love to know about more interesting orbits that actually get used, the cycler was really interesting. Maybe something about comets and missions to near earth astroids?
So in 61 days TESs will reach science operation and we hope to find out, that our solar system isn’t as special as some thought due to biased in knowing more hot Jupiter though Kepler. What are the expected achievements here? Finding more and more rock lick exoplanets and learning about solar systems and planet formation? Finding system within our reach or an interstellar probe?
I’m already excited for this mission because it has “Exoplanet” in the name, now I’m even more excited because of the orbit.
The $200 million budget is for the satellite alone. Launch costs are tacked on after
Looks like TESS is delayed 48 hours, launch is now 18 April.
So they won’t have to blow up the Earth for obstructing their view of another planet. Warner Bros. must be proud.
Thank you for this. A very easy to understand explanation.
Top be fair, you have a very soothing voice. You could read a phonebook to me.
SCRUBBED
Thanks for giving me new levels of appreciation for what these launches are all about.
*can’t wait for the launch!*
“exploder class” that’s a ballsy name right there…
Wait, TESS? The Elder Scrolls Skyrim? God damn it Todd Howard
I had heard there was something special about the orbit and was curious. Thanks for the timely info.
4:55
The integer period relative to the Moon is not a Kozai resonance, it is a mean motion resonance (MMR). Kozai resonance is the libration of argument of pericenter, coupled with the libration of eccentricity and inclination.
Kozai resonance does not necessarily require MMR (it was first discovered for non mean motion resonant orbits, actually), while MMR does not always lead to Kozai resonance. And the high inclination you are talking about is required only for Kozai resonance without MMR. In case of MMR, Kozai resonances can occur for small inclinations as well.
Great video, didn’t know about the orbit thing.Thanks for the info.
TESS launch standing down for 48 hours. 🙁
This is why I love Scott Manley. I literally learn something new every video I click. You are my favourite space Youtuber atm, right after PBS Space Time and SciShow Space
For more savings they could have put one of those wifi SD cards in the camera. When it swings by Earth it will hit the wifi and send the pics.
Nice shirt.
LESS POWER MORE EFFICIENCY AND CHECK YO STAGING👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Cool! I am much more excited about this mission than I was 7 minutes ago.
I always want to play Kerbal Space Program when ever I watch Scott.
Interesting fact: The F9 second stage will be going much farther than TESS. It will be disposed of on an hyperbolic escape trajectory to a heliocentric orbit. They will need to separate TESS soon-ish after reaching the transfer orbit and then do a small extra firing to accelerate the stage to escape velocity. Surprisingly little extra propellant will be needed for this, since the required delta-V for escape from this high-energy orbit is small and the stage will be light.
Now imagine explaining this to a general TV audience…
Thanks to KSP we all know our orbital mechanics.
SpaceX shoulda used the procedural fairings mod
The Lagrange points get all the hype but this is some seriously impressive orbital mechanics.
Looks like an orbit I accidentally get in Kerbal all the time.
They better F5 when they get close to the moon cause these things are finicky.