If
you are using a browser that supports Java Applets... This
will automatically launch a POP-UP window containing the
Nutation Control Game.
Click inside the pop-up window window to fire the thruster.
You have to do it at the right time to control the nutation,
and also to try and compensate for the Earth drift.
Have
you killed the game window but you want to RESTART
?
(To restart on a Macintosh click the refresh button on your
browser).
NOTHING
HAPPENS ?...READ THIS:
If you are sure you are using a browser that supports Java
Applets but the game does not start... Rest assured that
the game has only a few small files (20k total) and downloads
quickly, but some browsers seem to take a long time (2 min.
or more) to start a new Java environment. If you think that
you are experiencing this problem you may want to go and
read the Pre-Game Instructions
, or the Tips & Tricks (or somewere
else) while the browser sorts out the environment. Normally
this site will remain active in your browser, and the game
window will pop up while you are buying some time, otherwise
just come back here in a couple of minutes.
NOTE:
Understand that in real life, and under normal circumstances,
the "passive nutation dampers" (some clever friction devices)
will take care of the nutation, that will go down to zero
without "mission control" intervention. The "Nutation Anomaly"
only occurs in certain phases of the Ulysses Mission, when
the Sun's thermal energy is strong enough to make the flexible
booms oscillate (a phenomenon discovered in-flight). The
nutation feeds on this oscillation, and the Sun "pumps"
into the system more energy than the nutation dampers can
handle. It is then that we need to execute the real Nutation
Control Manoeuvres, which are based on the same principle
in the game (although they are slightly more complex).
Nutation
Game copyright European Space Agency 1996
(Developed by Raul Garcia-Perez for the European Space Agency
office at JPL).
Send Comments to Bruce
E. Goldstein.
