A NASA spacecraft is again to regular after weeks of troubles in space.
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) allowed controllers to reset the pc on March 2, company officers said on Monday (opens in new tab) (March 6), ending three weeks of points in making an attempt to succeed in the spacecraft.
The mission crew did a “firecode reset,” or exterior reset of the spacecraft, permitting controllers to regain management of the unresponsive spacecraft two full days earlier than IBEX was scheduled to do an autonomous reset and energy cycle on Saturday (March 4.)
All is again to regular now, company officers added. “IBEX telemetry exhibits that the spacecraft is totally operational and functioning usually.”
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NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer launched in October 2008 to review the outer fringe of the heliosphere, specializing in the “bubble” that represents the boundary between the sun’s surroundings and interstellar space.
The spacecraft totally mapped the heliosphere in its first yr after launch and will get entire-sky photos each six months. Its most well-known discovery is uncovering a dense area of particles, nicknamed the “IBEX ribbon.”
The company first introduced points in “regaining command functionality” in late February, however emphasised the spacecraft itself was wholesome regardless of its laptop resetting unexpectedly and putting IBEX into contingency mode. “Flight software program nonetheless is working, and the spacecraft programs look like useful,” NASA officers stated in a Feb. 24 update (opens in new tab).
IBEX kinds a part of a community of spacecraft learning the solar wind (or fixed stream of particles from our sun) alongside the sun itself to achieve a greater understanding of how the heliosphere shapes our solar system.
The spacecraft has spent 15 years in space, persevering with work greater than a decade previous when its prime mission led to 2011.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a guide about space drugs. Comply with her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
