Pluto and beyond, Space Science, Space Systems

New Horizons spacecraft begins recovery from safe mode incident as Pluto fly-by approaches

July 5, 2015 TopSpacer 3 Comments

The New Horizons spacecraft, which will fly past Pluto on July 14th, went into safe mode on Saturday. This happens occasionally with most spacecraft. It is like a reboot on a computer. Something unexpected happened, for example a memory bit flipping its value due to a cosmic ray hitting a RAM chip, and the control system is programmed to shut everything down and run only the most essential components including the communications gear.

The ground system team then re-establishes contact with the spacecraft and downloads data regarding why the system went into safe mode. After diagnosing what happened, the team will carefully restart one subsystem after another and will try to either fix or route around any component, e.g. a bad section of memory, that has a problem that could result in another safe mode incident.

[ Update 6:20 EDT July.5.15: No further updates yet from the New Horizons team on the recovery of the spacecraft from Safe Mode. Here are some articles about the incident:

This brief “Random Space Fact” video from the Planetary Society’s Bruce Betts was made before the Safe Mode incident but he provides some scale for the speed and distances involved in the mission:

]

Here is a statement on Saturday from the New Horizons team about the incident:

New Horizons Team Responds to Spacecraft Anomaly

The New Horizons spacecraft experienced an anomaly this afternoon that led to a loss of communication with Earth. Communication has since been reestablished and the spacecraft is healthy.

The mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, lost contact with the unmanned spacecraft — now 10 days from arrival at Pluto — at 1:54 p.m. EDT, and regained communications with New Horizons at 3:15 p.m. EDT, through NASA’s Deep Space Network.

During that time the autonomous autopilot on board the spacecraft recognized a problem and – as it’s programmed to do in such a situation – switched from the main to the backup computer. The autopilot placed the spacecraft in “safe mode,” and commanded the backup computer to reinitiate communication with Earth. New Horizons then began to transmit telemetry to help engineers diagnose the problem.

A New Horizons Anomaly Review Board was convened at 4 p.m. EDT to gather information on the problem and initiate a recovery plan. The team is now working to return New Horizons to its original flight plan. Due to the 9-hour, round trip communication delay that results from operating a spacecraft almost 3 billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, full recovery is expected to take from one to several days; New Horizons will be temporarily unable to collect science data during that time.

Status updates will be issued as new information is available.

Activism

To the Stars International Quarterly – July 2015 issue

July 5, 2015 TopSpacer 1 Comment

Check out, To The Stars International Quarterly – July 2015 (pdf). It is a joint publication of several space activist organizations including

Here is the cover page and table of contents of the 200 page issue:

Astronomy, Education, Space participation

Public Telescope: Private sector initiative aims to make a space observatory available for all

July 4, 2015 TopSpacer 1 Comment

The Public Telescope is a German private initiative to develop, launch, and operate a space-based observatory that would be dedicated for the use of the general public, students, as well as professional astronomers. They are seeking private backing as well as public funding. (I cannot find a total estimated cost of the observatory.) User fees would finance the operation of the telescope. The article – astrofactum: The first Public Space Telescope – SpaceOps Journal – July.2014 – describes the overall plan.

They recently obtained an EU grant:

astrofactum receives EU funding for
space telescope project Public Telescope

astrofactum GmbH, Institute for Astronomy and Space Technology receives support from the European Union for the development of their project Public Telescope.The Public Telescope project is a private sector initiative to develop and build a commercial space telescope, which can be used by anyone.

The support of the project by the European Union is carried out within the EU funding program Horizon 2020 (SME Instrument 1st funding level), which has set itself the objective of strengthening the competitiveness of innovative European companies in global competition. The European Commission refers to the winners of the funding program as the most innovative European companies with the most innovative ideas.

The first stage of European funding amounting to 50,000 euros will be used to substantiate the commercial use model for the space telescope as part of its feasibility study. Subsequently further funding from the same EU program will be applied for to develop the necessary infrastructure for the satellite and the marketing.

“The support of the project by the European Commission is an important signal to potential new investors. We are delighted with the esteem and the confidence that the European Commission puts into the Public Telescope project. “says Heiko Wilkens, project initiator of Public Telescope.

Project Public Telescope

astrofactum offers with the Public Telescope project for the first time ever access to astronomical observations with a space telescope (80 cm) for the target groups science, amateur astronomy, education as well as to astronomy interested persons. The monitoring capacity can be used via an online platform. Monitoring projects of scientists will be individually supervised by the astrofactum science team.

For science the Space Telescope will close the gap in the ultraviolet range (UV) between the Hubble telescope (operational end in 2020 at the very latest) and future UV missions. The start of the operational service is planned from 2025. Access to the UV spectral region (observation only outside the atmosphere possible) is for astrophysical research in virtually all areas of fundamental importance.

Public Telescope represents a further advantage for international scientific enterprises whose countries are not involved in astronomical space missions and thus are limited in using existing space capabilities for research purposes.

The Space Telescope offers next to science also to amateur astronomy and education (students) an astronomical instrument outside the earth’s atmosphere. Observations of planets, nebulae, galaxies and many other objects can be carried out outside the earth’s atmosphere in an interference-free picture quality without the limitations of air and light pollution, air turbulence or the filter effect.

New for both target groups (amateur astronomy and education) is the first-time access and the related observation possibilities of objects in the UV spectral range.

Education, SpaceCasts

Videos: TMRO Space Pods – “Top 5 Rockets of all time” + “Space is hard… or is it?”

July 3, 2015 TopSpacer 1 Comment

Two recent Space Pod short video reports from TMRO.tv:

* “TMRO Chief Astronomer Jared Head shares his Top 5 rockets with a few surprises, for this week’s SpacePod.”

* “TMRO Chief Astronomer Jared Head asks, “Is spaceflight still hard?” after seeing several news stories saying we shouldn’t call spaceflight difficult anymore.”

TMRO Space Pods are crowd funded shows. If you like [these episodes] consider contributing to help us to continue to improve. Head over to http://www.patreon.com/spacepod for information, goals and reward levels. Don’t forget to check out our weekly live show campaign as well over at http://www.patreon.com/tmro