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Resurrecting NEAR

Posted by michael on from the nine-lives-already-used-up dept.

JoeRobe writes "Space.com is reporting that John Hopkins researchers are going to attempt to revive the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft at the end of the year. The spacecraft, designed to orbit asteroid Eros, finished its mission by successfully landing on the surface of the asteroid in February 2001, resting on its body and two solar panels. Now, after NEAR has been silent and cold for over a year, researchers are going to try to make contact with it and possibly try to turn on its scientific instruments one last time . How long can silent electronics last in space?"

3 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. How Long? by cybrpnk2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How long can electronics last in space? NASA contacted the Pioneer 6 spacecraft after 35 years in space. An even more interesting question is how long LIFE can last in space. The Surveyor III camera brought back from the moon by Apollo 12 had bacteria in it from where somebody had coughed on it. Commenting on this, astronaut Pete Conrad (who died recently in a motorbike accident) said, "I always thought the most significant thing we found on the whole goddamn Moon was that little bacteria who came back and lived and nobody ever said shit about it..."

    1. Re:How Long? by Cally · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I became strangely obsessed with that whole incident a year or so back. I ended up grovelling through various NASA archives trying to find the pics (which of course I've lost the URIs for... so now guess I just HAVE to go back to the Project Apollo site and look for them again ;)

      what fascinated me was that they'd landed an Apollo mission close enough to the old Surveyor to go looking for, and find, it. Of course the Surveyor didn't do take a Pathfinder like "picture of me on the moon" (not having a rover to take it with), so the two pics I found are I think the only ones of a robotic craft that's completed it's mission and gone to sleep. I can't really articulate why this fascinates me -- it's something like the reason divers explore shipwrecks. An historical artefact washed up on the shores of time (maaaan...) er, or something.

      Anyway, I found the pics; warning, these are the hi-res images. to see the thumbnails go to http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_gallery.html
      hit the Apollo 12 link, search for "surv".

      Middle distance shot
      closeup view
      Closeup of landing pad

      Pete Conrad and Surveyor
      Alan Bean and Surveyor

      --
      "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
  2. Thermal Control by Detritus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Keeping all of the sensitive bits of a satellite within a reasonable temperature range is tricky. You have electronics modules producing heat that must be radiated into space. The exterior of the spacecraft has to cope with the temperature extremes of sunlight and shade. You don't want the batteries to freeze. Some parts of the spacecraft might be damaged if they are allowed to get too cold.

    --
    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat