{"id":10893,"date":"2015-07-05T02:34:31","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T06:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10893"},"modified":"2015-07-05T18:20:29","modified_gmt":"2015-07-05T22:20:29","slug":"new-horizons-spacecraft-begins-recovery-from-safe-mode-incident-as-pluto-fly-by-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10893","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons spacecraft begins recovery from safe mode incident as Pluto fly-by approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">New Horizons<\/a> 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\u00a0a memory bit\u00a0flipping its value due to a cosmic ray hitting a\u00a0RAM chip, and the control system\u00a0is programmed to shut everything down and\u00a0run only the most essential components including the communications gear.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>[ <strong>Update 6:20 EDT July.5.15<\/strong>: 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:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.planetary.org\/blogs\/emily-lakdawalla\/2015\/07042044-new-horizons-enters-safe-mode.html?referrer=http:\/\/t.co\/3yVFm03G1V\" target=\"_d\">New Horizons enters safe mode 10 days before Pluto flyby &#8211; Emily\u00a0Lakdawalla\/The Planetary Society<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/2015\/07\/05\/technical-problem-pauses-pluto-probes-science-operations\/\" target=\"_d\">Technical problem pauses Pluto probe\u2019s science operations &#8211;\u00a0Spaceflight Now<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.space.com\/29853-new-horizons-glitch-pluto-flyby.html\" target=\"_d\">Pluto Probe Suffers Glitch 10 Days Before Epic Flyby &#8211; Space.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This brief &#8220;Random Space Fact&#8221; video from the Planetary Society&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.planetary.org\/blogs\/bruce-betts\/?referrer=http:\/\/planetary.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bruce Betts<\/a> was made before the Safe Mode incident but he provides some scale for the speed and distances involved in the mission:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JF0FEGq-aSc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>]<\/p>\n<p>Here is a statement on Saturday from the New Horizons team about the incident:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/News-Center\/News-Article.php?page=20150704\" target=\"_d\">New Horizons Team Responds to Spacecraft Anomaly<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, lost contact with the unmanned spacecraft &#8212; now 10 days from arrival at Pluto &#8212; at 1:54 p.m. EDT, and regained communications with New Horizons at 3:15 p.m. EDT, through NASA\u2019s Deep Space Network.<\/p>\n<p>During that time the autonomous autopilot on board the spacecraft recognized a problem and \u2013 as it\u2019s programmed to do in such a situation \u2013 switched from the main to the backup computer. The autopilot placed the spacecraft in \u201csafe mode,\u201d and commanded the backup computer to reinitiate communication with Earth. New Horizons then began to transmit telemetry to help engineers diagnose the problem.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Status updates will be issued as new information is available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u00a0a memory bit\u00a0flipping its value due to a cosmic ray hitting a\u00a0RAM chip, and the control system\u00a0is programmed to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10893\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New Horizons spacecraft begins recovery from safe mode incident as Pluto fly-by approaches<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pluto","category-space-science","category-space-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2PH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10902,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10902","url_meta":{"origin":10893,"position":0},"title":"New Horizons spacecraft to resume normal operations on July 7th","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest from the New Horizons team about the anomaly that put the spacecraft into Safe Mode on Saturday: New Horizons Plans July 7 Return to Normal Science Operations NASA's New Horizons mission is returning to normal science operations after a July 4 anomaly and remains on track for its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Pluto and beyond&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10864,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10864","url_meta":{"origin":10893,"position":1},"title":"Pluto Fly-by: New images, methane detection, &#038; course correction","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet more news and pictures from\u00a0New Horizons:\u00a0 New Horizons Update: Methane Detected; New Images of Pluto and Charon\u00a0 Yes, there is methane on Pluto, and, no, it doesn\u2019t come from cows. The infrared spectrometer on NASA\u2019s Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has detected frozen methane on Pluto\u2019s surface; Earth-based astronomers first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Pluto and beyond&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"nh-6-30-15_pluto_movie_nasa_jhuapl_swri[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh-6-30-15_pluto_movie_nasa_jhuapl_swri1.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2815,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2815","url_meta":{"origin":10893,"position":2},"title":"Pluto probe to stay on course despite dust\/debris collision worries","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The New Horizons probe heading towards Pluto will stay on course despite concerns of a possible collision with orbital dust and debris that have been found to be greater that expected since the launch of the mission (link via Twitter \/ jeff_foust): New Horizons Team Sticking to Original Flight Plan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Space Science&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Space Science","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image of Pluto system","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/news_center\/news\/pictures\/Pluto-System.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10779,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10779","url_meta":{"origin":10893,"position":3},"title":"New Horizons Pluto mission: New video + Course correction","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A video from the New Horizons mission to Pluto: https:\/\/youtu.be\/aky9FFj4ybE --- And here is a press release: One Month from Pluto: New Horizons on Track, All Clear, and Ready for Action Now within one month of the historic Pluto flyby, NASA\u2019s New Horizons team has executed a small but important\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Pluto and beyond&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/aky9FFj4ybE\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10977,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10977","url_meta":{"origin":10893,"position":4},"title":"New Horizons flies by Pluto","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The New Horizons probe made its\u00a0close fly-by pass of Pluto this morning: NASA's Three-Billion-Mile Journey to Pluto Reaches Historic Encounter NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft is at Pluto. After a decade-long journey through our solar system, New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto Tuesday, about 7,750 miles above the surface\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Pluto and beyond&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pluto_LORRI_FULLFRAME_COLOR","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Pluto_LORRI_FULLFRAME_COLOR.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10986,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10986","url_meta":{"origin":10893,"position":5},"title":"New Horizons: Probe survives the fly-by of Pluto &#038; begins long download of data","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The New Horizons spacecraft re-established contact with ground stations after spending nearly a day focused only on the Plutonian systems. NASA's New Horizons \u2018Phones Home\u2019 Safe after Pluto Flyby The call everyone was waiting for is in. NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft phoned home just before 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Pluto and beyond&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"New Horizons Flight Controllers celebrate after they received confirmation from the spacecraft that it had successfully completed the flyby of Pluto, Tuesday, July 14, 2015 in the Mission Operations Center (MOC) of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Maryland. Photo Credit: (NASA\/Bill Ingalls)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/15-1501.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10893"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10896,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10893\/revisions\/10896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}