Tue, Nov 01, 2005
Marooned!
The first-ever earth
satellite developed by European University students has been put
into a standby mode to conserve energy, after mission control
noticed a drop in voltage in the probe's batteries. If a fix isn't
discovered soon, SSETI Express will soon be adrift, out of power,
in low-earth orbit.
The European Space Agency, which launched the satellite Thursday
morning from Russia's Pletsetsk Cosmodrome atop a Kosmos 3M launch
vehicle, reported to the New Kerala newspaper the craft began to
lose power shortly after launch. “We're having some problems
charging the batteries from the solar panels. It gave us some cause
for concern,” said Neil Melville, project manager for SSETI
Express at ESA's base in Noordwijk in the Netherlands.
The agency was not sure if the mission could be saved. "The
power supply was decreasing quite dramatically," said ESA
spokesperson Simonetta Cheli.
Despite the power
shortage, the SSETI Express -- which was designed over the Internet
by students -- is being called a "remarkable success" on the
project website, adding the probe achieved its first two mission
objectives and a number of milestones before it was struck by the
power loss.
"We put it in safe mode to check what's going on and see if we
can still recover the satellite," said Cheli. She added if the
glitch could not be fixed, "there would be no power to do
anything."
A statement on the website called the chances of a recovery
"small but significant."
However, as the goal of the project was to have students working
together on the full space-launch process, even the failure is seen
as something of a positive for the group. "The educational goals of
the project continue to be met by the student teams who are still
working hard to analyse and understand all available data, such
that the lessons learned can be applied to future missions," said
the website statement.
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