Engineers regain contact with Proba-3’s Coronagraph probe
The Proba-3 mission. Click for original.
A month after all contact was lost with the Coronagraph probe of Europe’s two-spacecraft Proba-3 solar observatory, engineers have regained contact with it this week, and have been able to place it in safe mode in preparation for re-establishing science operations.
After more than a month of silence, ESA’s ground station in Villafranca, Spain, received telemetry from the Coronagraph spacecraft. Telemetry is a package of data sent by a spacecraft including information on its temperature, voltages, and health of onboard systems.
The Coronagraph is now in safe mode and stable, and the mission team and operators are running health checks on the spacecraft to understand if any parts of it have been damaged.
The spacecraft’s solar panel is facing the Sun, powering the essential electronics on board, and charging the battery with the remaining power.
Before it can resume observations engineers need to get the spacecraft back up to operating temperature after a month without power.
As shown in the graphic to the right, the Coronograph satellite is the heart of this mission. It records the data, available because the Occulter blocks the Sun from view so that the corona, the Sun’s atmosphere, can be seen. It is almost a miracle that it has survived that month, and can soon resume observations.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Proba-3 mission. Click for original.
A month after all contact was lost with the Coronagraph probe of Europe’s two-spacecraft Proba-3 solar observatory, engineers have regained contact with it this week, and have been able to place it in safe mode in preparation for re-establishing science operations.
After more than a month of silence, ESA’s ground station in Villafranca, Spain, received telemetry from the Coronagraph spacecraft. Telemetry is a package of data sent by a spacecraft including information on its temperature, voltages, and health of onboard systems.
The Coronagraph is now in safe mode and stable, and the mission team and operators are running health checks on the spacecraft to understand if any parts of it have been damaged.
The spacecraft’s solar panel is facing the Sun, powering the essential electronics on board, and charging the battery with the remaining power.
Before it can resume observations engineers need to get the spacecraft back up to operating temperature after a month without power.
As shown in the graphic to the right, the Coronograph satellite is the heart of this mission. It records the data, available because the Occulter blocks the Sun from view so that the corona, the Sun’s atmosphere, can be seen. It is almost a miracle that it has survived that month, and can soon resume observations.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News