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SOHO Is Back
c4tp's friend writes "Space.com reports that SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) is back and almost fully operational. The satellite should be able to transmit 98% of the data it was able to transport before an electric motor stuck disabling its high gain attenae in June (covered by Slashdot). The fix includes a 180 degree rotation of SOHO and use of another satellite dish transmitting the information via the Deep Space Network. SOHO will be out of order for about nine to sixteen days every three months."
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
Looks like nasa finally got that shipment of metric converter calculators i sent them
This device is operational for alreay seven years, whereas it has been designed for two operational years, with a possible extension to five.
So don't laugh when one of these upgrades goes wrong. Like one of the Vikings which was accidentally sent the command "switch off your reciever" while on the surface of Mars (it is still there, patiently waiting for the next order).
Slashdot monitor for your Mozilla sidebar or Active Desktop.
The Sun-watching SOHO spacecraft is back in full operational mode after a partial blackout period that raised serious concerns among space weather forecasters. The probe could survive until 2008, when a replacement probe could be launched SPACE.com has learned.
Though limping a bit, SOHO is now able to resume meeting most of its original mission objectives thanks to creative engineering solutions, an elated mission official said.
SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) began having problems in early June. A stuck motor drive would not permit its high-gain antenna to move. The antenna is used for transmitting important pictures and data back to Earth, and it must be pointed toward the planet.
No other set of satellites can produce the data provided by SOHO, scientists say.
This week the spacecraft's orbit brought it into a favorable position and, as planned, engineers flipped the craft 180 degrees so its antenna could point toward Earth. SOHO orbits a gravitationally stable point in space, partway between Earth and the Sun, every six months.
"Things are back in full operation," said Joe Gurman of the Solar Data Analysis Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Gurman said in a telephone interview that despite continuing gaps in SOHO's ability to transmit, about 98 percent of the data required by space weather forecasters will be returned during the rest of the spacecraft's lifetime.
That life has lasted more than seven years, even though SOHO was designed for a two-year mission with a possible three-year extension.
"The actual scientific impact is pretty limited," Gurman said. "And we're really happy about that."
When SPACE.com first reported the problem on June 19, officials said the result might be total blackout periods for several weeks each year. Space weather forecasters who rely on the data said it would gut their forecasts, which in turn are used by satellite operators and power companies to minimize risk of failure during strong solar storms. Even commercial television broadcasts and pager services would have been at greater risk for downtime if storms struck without warning.
The SOHO team has proven resourceful, however.
The probe entered an expected blackout period on June 27. Since then, officials have employed a slower backup antenna to transmit data. A creative solution was devised. Some data was recorded on board and then downloaded using high-speed transmissions -- through the backup antenna -- when time could be spared on large 70-meter dishes of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN).
SOHO does not normally use the high-capability DSN.
SOHO officials will meet later today with the DSN team to discuss how much time they can get on the network. Gurman said beginning early next year the spacecraft's needs will find tough competition from a plethora of Mars missions that will also rely on the DSN.
Meanwhile, a similar approach allows some data to be returned to a 34-meter dish when the DSN is not available.
Full and normal operation resumed on July 14. Partial blackouts lasting between nine and 16 days will continue to occur every three months.
"It is good to welcome SOHO back to normal operations, as it proves that we have a good understanding of the situation and can confidently work around it," said Stein Haugan, acting SOHO project scientist with the European Space Agency.
Engineers expect the craft to endure. Barring catastrophe, SOHO could last until a similar probe, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), is launched, possibly in 2008.
Gurman said SDO, if it goes up as planned, would be a 100-percent replacement for SOHO.
Meanwhile, solar activity is lessening. An 11-year cycle peaked over the past two years and is ramping down to a low point that will come between 2005 and 2007.
"I see no reason to believe we can't continue to operate in this fashion through the end of the solar cycle," Gurman said.
SOHO is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency.ht
Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational observatory!
I never cease to be amazed by all that NASA is capable. Time and time again they have had (understandable) glitches occur, because space is the most hostile environment. And time and time again they manage to come up with innovative solutions they can use to fix problems when the equipment is millions (or even billions) of miles away and cannot be touched. Voyager II was still transmitting data recently, and it's out of the solar system! How many other systems built three decades ago are still functioning? And do they have to contend with the harshest environment known to man?
I commend NASA on their ingenuity and problem-solving skills. Microsoft, for instance, has so many bugs often times they'll just give up on problems where they even have physical access to the device and just tell you to "reinstall the OS"! NASA works under many more constraints and yet consistently manage to get the job done right. There's no other organization (governmental or otherwise) that I place as much trust in as NASA. They're working for all humankind and won't let anything get in their way.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
I was really bugged by this quote:
Kudos to NASA and ESA for keeping SOHO flying, and I hope they continue to do so. But if the private sector depends critically on SOHO output, perhaps they should have their own bird flying by now, rather than waiting for the next solar observer scheduled to fly by 2008. If this is considered a mission vital to the overall public good (like, for example, NOAA's GOES satellites), why are we hearing about this now rather than in 2001 when SOHO was scheduled to expire?
If SOHO goes quiet and your business is affected, don't complain that NASA et al are falling down on the job -- launch your own satellite!
The problem with SOHO is, that everyone has grown rather dependent on, what originally was a scientific, not an operational mission. It has now become a single point of failure in the gathering of important space weather forecasting data.
Space.com recently had an article about this. Without the constant stream of SOHO data, "it isn't too far off the mark that our forecasting methodology would revert back to the way it was many years ago," Joseph Kunches Chief, Space Weather Operations at the Space Environment Center told SPACE.com. "So without it for a little while...well, you keep your fingers crossed. You hope the Sun doesn't know," he said.