NASA COVERUP ON THE REAL CAUSE OF
SOHO'S FAILURE
These two stories appeared in the Nando Times Health and Science Page
for July 28, 1998.
Notice the discrepencies between the two stories, one from 1:46
pm and the other from a 5:16 pm update, caught by our eagle-eyed
editor, M.J. Clooney. The first story claims that the cause of the
satellite's failure was still unknown and being investigated by NASA
and the ESA, while the later story blames a "programming error" for
the incident.
Engineers locate crippled satellite
using radar system
Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (July 28, 1998 1:46 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) --
Engineers have made radar contact with a crippled satellite sent up
to observe the sun, but cannot establish a radio link because the
satellite apparently has no electrical power, NASA officials said
Tuesday.
Radio signals from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
satellite, a joint U.S. and European project, were abruptly
interrupted June 24. Engineers have being trying since to find a way
to re-establish contact with the craft.
SOHO was located by beaming signals from the 990-foot radio
telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The signals apparently bounced off
the satellite, which is about one million miles from Earth, and the
echo was then detected by NASA's deep space tracking dish in
Goldstone, Calif.
Preliminary analysis suggests the craft is spinning at the rate
of about one revolution per minute, the officials said. It is still
located where it was supposed to be: the L-1 Lagrangian point in
space. This is a spot where the gravity forces are stable and an
object will not change its position relative to the Earth.
Don Savage, a NASA spokesman, said engineers believe SOHO is
spinning with its solar power panels edge-on toward the sun. In this
position, he said, the panels do not generate the power needed to
recharge SOHO's batteries.
However, as the Earth moves about the sun, the angle of the solar
panels will change favorably, allowing them to capture more and more
sunlight. Savage said it is hoped that within about 90 days the solar
panels will be able to generate enough power to recharge the
batteries, permitting the satellite to respond to radio signals from
the Earth.
SOHO's battery can retain only a one-hour charge. That means the
craft must generate electricity with its solar panels almost
constantly to operate effectively.
What caused the sudden loss of radio
signals still is unknown, but is being investigated by a board of
NASA and European Space Agency engineers.
SOHO has already completed its primary mission, but NASA and ESA
engineers hoped to get additional research from the solar
observatory. The craft was designed for a two-year operational
lifetime and was launched Dec. 2, 1995.
NASA funded $477 million of SOHO's nearly $1 billion cost. ESA
paid the rest.
By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer
NASA re-establishes contact with
wayward satellite
Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 AFP
WASHINGTON (July 27, 1998 5:16 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) -
U.S. astronomers have found the lost SOHO satellite, sent up by a
joint U.S.-European mission to study the sun, after radio contact was
interrupted by a programming error, NASA said Monday.
Two radio telescopes detected SOHO as it rotated slowly near its
original position in space, approximately 1 million miles from Earth,
NASA added.
Engineers were able to calculate the exact location of the vessel
when NASA's Deep Space Network in Goldstone, Calif., intercepted the
echo of a radio signal transmitted by the giant radio telescope of
the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) in Arecibo,
Puerto Rico.
Radio contact with SOHO was interrupted on
June 24 due to a programming error on the ground which led its solar
panels to switch positions. Deprived of solar energy, the
satellite stopped responding to orders from Earth.
Those in charge of the mission, led by NASA and the European
Space Agency (ESA), have begun studying the data collected by the two
radio telescopes in an attempt to re-establish contact with the
spacecraft.
SOHO is apparently slowly rotating on its axis, which suggests
that it suffered only minor damage and, most importantly, that its
solar panels will soon face the sun again. NASA expects to
re-establish contact as soon as the probe's batteries are recharged
in the coming weeks.
Designed by ESA, the SOHO satellite was launched on December 2,
1995, by the American rocket Atlas II and is piloted from NASA's
Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md.
On June 4, the probe recorded an extremely rare phenomenon -- the
dive of two comets into the Sun's atmosphere. On May 27, it
registered for the first time a solar quake of incredible
magnitude.
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