ESA Satellite Recovers: Total Loss To Geostationary

Slimbob writes "About 2 years ago an Ariane 5 rocket malfunctioned and left a very expensive Artemis satellite in an unusable orbit. Well, over the course of 18 months, the European Space Agency actually managed to push the satellite into a usable orbit using measly 15mN ion thrusters! They managed the feat by reprogramming about 20% of the original control software and uplinking the patches to the satellite! See the ESA press release . Achievements include the first first major reprogramming of a telecommunications satellite, the first orbital transfer to geostationary orbit using ion propulsion, and the longest ever operational drift orbit."

Comments

Re:Don't understand their error rate calculations

[Merlin42]

I think that instead of 109 it should have read 10 to the 9 or 10^9 ... now it makes perfect sense.

Re:"15mN ion thrusters"

[MrPeach]

It's not the size of the thrusters, it's the length of it's operation!