Mon, Aug 19, 2002
Not Looking Good For Contour
NASA's comet-hunting Contour satellite appears to
have broken apart shortly after rockets were fired to break it free
from the earth's gravity well. Long-range images taken by the
University of Arizona appear to show that Contour has broken into
at least two pieces.
The highly publicized $158 million explorer was designed
to examine two comets at very close range and offer clues to
the makeup of the universe... but after going silent late last
week, and with the evidence provided by the University of Arizona,
hopes are fading for this amazing mission. If it is lost, it would
be the first failure of a NASA planetary spacecraft since the Mars
Polar Lander slammed into Mars in 1999.
It comprised one of the most aggressive missions ever
launched by NASA. Pictures posted by the University of Arizona at
http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/contour.html do
show two distinct images where only one should exist (see picture
on right) and were taken when the objects were about 286,000 miles
from earth.
The Contour mission crew, based at the Applied
Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, is continuing to
try to contact the craft, but they have reported wholly negative
results for several days now. Contour was destined to loop around
the sun and visit Comet Encke in 2003, followed by Comet
Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 in 2006.
There is some hope for the spacecraft though, according to NASA
sources, "There is a built-in command on the spacecraft. If it
doesn't receive a command in 96 hours, it is supposed to cycle
through all its antennas and begin transmitting through all four...
We'll see if that will still work. We are still going to try and
find it."
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