astronomy

Spartan Halley

Spartan Halley is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Spartan Halley rather than just read about it. In short: Spartan Halley was a failed NASA space mission to capture the ultraviolet spectrum of comet 1P/Halley for 48 hours. This small satellite was also identified as Spartan 203 (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy 203) and HCED (Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable).

Key takeaways

Spartan Halley belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Spartan Halley to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Spartan Halley from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Spartan Halley was a failed NASA space mission to capture the ultraviolet spectrum of comet 1P/Halley for 48 hours. This small satellite was also identified as Spartan 203 (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy 203) and HCED (Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable). It was one of the payloads of the Space Shuttle Challenger for the STS-51-L mission, which exploded during launch. The principal scientist for the mission was Alan Stern. This autonomous sub-satellite was designed by the University of Colorado. It included two spectrometers that provided an angular resolution of 1′ by 80′ in the ultraviolet band, with wavelengths from 1,250 to 3,200 Å. A Nikon camera with an f-number of 3 was to be used to determine the orientation of the instruments. Autonomous navigation was provided by solar sensors, a star tracker, gyroscopes along three axes, and dual interactive microprocessors. The main goal of the package was to measure atomic oxygen plus hydroxyl emission from the comet, which were generated by photodissociation of water. Other potentially detectable emissions included nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monosulfide; in general, atoms and molecules that include carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. The launch of the Challenger mission was scheduled around the 1986 passage of Comet Halley, which was to be the primary focus of the mission. The Spartan Halley payload was to be deployed by mission specialists Ron McNair and Judy Resnik using the Canadarm, then retrieved two days later.

References

Further reading Mission Design and Operations: SPARTAN-Halley as a Paradigm for Small Satellites, retrieved 2023-06-17. Hartmann, Al (ed.), NASA Challenger STS-51L Pre-Launch Fact Sheet, Spaceline, Inc., retrieved 2023-06-17.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Spartan Halley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Spartan Halley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Spartan Halley before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Spartan Halley ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Spartan Halley

In research: Spartan Halley appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Spartan Halley in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Spartan Halley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Satellite launch failures, Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Ultraviolet telescopes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Spartan Halley outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Spartan Halley in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Spartan Halley means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Spartan Halley out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Spartan Halley in simple terms?

Why does Spartan Halley matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Spartan Halley?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Spartan Halley.