MESSENGER flies past Mercury, suffers power glitch
Posted: Thu, Oct 1, 2009, 6:45 AM ET (1045 GMT)
A NASA spacecraft made its third flyby of the planet Mercury on Tuesday, but a problem with the spacecraft's power system caused the spacecraft to go into space mode, disrupting scientific observations. The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft made its closest approach to the planet at 5:55 pm EDT (2155 GMT) Tuesday, passing 228 kilometers above the planet's surface. The flyby was the last of three planned for the spacecraft before it goes into orbit around the planet in March 2011. While the spacecraft took some images and collected other data as it approached the planet, MESSENGER went into safe mode about four minutes before closest approach. Project officials believe that "an unexpected configuration of the power system" while the spacecraft was in the planet's shadow triggered the safe mode. All the data collected prior to entering safe mode has been transmitted to Earth, although planned observations during closest approach were lost.
A NASA spacecraft made its third flyby of the planet Mercury on Tuesday, but a problem with the spacecraft's power system caused the spacecraft to go into space mode, disrupting scientific observations. The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft made its closest approach to the planet at 5:55 pm EDT (2155 GMT) Tuesday, passing 228 kilometers above the planet's surface. The flyby was the last of three planned for the spacecraft before it goes into orbit around the planet in March 2011. While the spacecraft took some images and collected other data as it approached the planet, MESSENGER went into safe mode about four minutes before closest approach. Project officials believe that "an unexpected configuration of the power system" while the spacecraft was in the planet's shadow triggered the safe mode. All the data collected prior to entering safe mode has been transmitted to Earth, although planned observations during closest approach were lost.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Saturday, February 7
Supermassive black holes sit in ‘eye of their own storms,’ studies find
Univ. of Chicago — 1:08 pm ET (1808 GMT) SpaceX Launching Falcon 9 With 25 Starlink Satellites
Santa Barbara (CA) Edhat — 8:24 am ET (1324 GMT) Epstein Was Adviser Behind Funding of Starlink Rival OneWeb
Bloomberg News — 8:23 am ET (1323 GMT) SpaceX targeting Saturday morning for Falcon 9 rocket launch
KEYT-TV Santa Barbara, CA — 8:22 am ET (1322 GMT) China sends fourth ‘Shenlong’ reusable spacecraft mission into orbit
South China Morning Post — 8:21 am ET (1321 GMT) |
