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An challenge has occurred with NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite tv for pc, at the moment on its option to orbit across the moon. The satellite tv for pc is now in protected mode whereas NASA groups work to determine the problem and discover a resolution.
As a part of NASA’s Artemis undertaking to return people to the moon, the company is engaged on varied bits of lunar structure to help missions in the long run. One main plan is to assemble an area station in orbit across the moon known as Gateway. The thought is to position this house station into a brand new orbit known as a close to rectilinear halo orbit, which makes use of little gasoline and would convey the station near the moon at some instances and have it additional away at different instances. Because this orbit is theoretical and has not been used earlier than, the CAPSTONE satellite tv for pc (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) was launched on June 28 this yr to check out the orbit.
To enter the orbit, scheduled for November 13, 2022, the satellite tv for pc has to carry out a collection of trajectory correction maneuvers. The satellite tv for pc carried out its newest maneuver on Thursday, September 8, after which an unknown challenge brought on the satellite tv for pc to enter protected mode. “CAPSTONE mission controllers have since obtained telemetry confirming that an issue put the spacecraft in safe mode near the end of the maneuver,” NASA wrote in an replace. “The CAPSTONE mission team has good knowledge of the state and status of the spacecraft. The mission operations team is in contact with the spacecraft and working towards a solution with support from the Deep Space Network. Additional updates will be provided as available.”
This is the second challenge that has beset the CAPSTONE satellite tv for pc. In July this yr, shortly after launch, an anomaly brought on NASA to lose contact with CAPSTONE. Communications with the satellite tv for pc have been re-established after a number of days. In a evaluate following the problem, NASA introduced that the problem was brought on by an improperly formatted command despatched to the satellite tv for pc’s radio system, compounded by a software program fault that didn’t reboot the radio instantly.
The newest challenge is completely different from this primary challenge because it includes protected mode — a protecting mode that the satellite tv for pc enters to guard itself from potential injury — fairly than being a communications challenge.
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