NASA Contour Probe May Not Be Broken After All

RedPhoenix writes "A few friends & I got together this morning to visit the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication station open day, just outside of Canberra Australia. One of the NASA team mentioned that there have been indications early this morning (AESTime) of a contact with the 'Contour' probe, that has been reported to have broken in two. Perhaps some cause for optimism? The most interesting part of the day though, was probably the little old wooden crate out the back of one of the warehouses, stamped with 'NASA Voyager 1 Mission' ... Now that would look nice as a geek coffee-table."

Comments

Re:I hope NASA are getting facts right

[RobotWisdom]

"$200million down the drain"

Yep-- 15 more like that every year, and we're talking 1% of the defense budget.

Can split probe still talk?

[Tablizer]

There are two moving spots where there should be one (viewed by big ground-based telescope).

Thus, if it can still communicate, then what is that second spot? It looks about the same brightness, so it must be roughly the same size (barring a lucky reflection).

It would be a miracle for it to have exploded during the boost phase, yet enough of it to survive to communicate.

BTW, the links appear to have be slashdotted, if not by us, then by the press. (I guess that would be pressdotted.)

This may be the first time that Nasa gets two probes for the price of one:

Con and Tour