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NASA Struggles To Contact Lost Mars Probe
David Shiga writes "Just when NASA was about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft, the probe suddenly lost contact with Earth, New Scientist Space reports. NASA last heard from the MGS probe on November 5, two days before the 10th anniversary of its launch from Earth. The MGS team is not sure yet what the problem is, but a micrometeorite could have jolted the spacecraft's main antenna out of alignment with Earth, or it might have a solar array problem and too little power to talk to Earth as a result. If they can't re-establish communication this week, NASA may try to diagnose the problem by taking pictures of MGS with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The two spacecraft come within about 100 kilometers of each other several times each week."
The resolution of MRO is really simple to calculate: at 300km, you get 30cm/pixel. So at 100km, you'd get 10cm/pixel. I'm really looking forward to see that kind of image of MGS, but without contact, how long can they wait before the orbit becomes uncertain? Pointing would be really difficult IMO.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
mr2cents - it's been done before and while the timing is no doubt a bitch, it's quite possible.
g s-images.html and from Malin Space Science Systems, the San Diego company that built and operates the camera, at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/19/ind ex.html .
linky
One Mars Orbiter Takes First Photos of Other Orbiters
Photographs from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft released today are the first pictures of any spacecraft orbiting Mars ever taken by another spacecraft orbiting Mars.
The new images of the European Space Agency's Mars Express and NASA's Mars Odyssey are available on the Internet from NASA at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/m
Of course, if all they see is a smear of debris, well I guess they know they won't be getting any more data.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
The communication bottleneck created by the MGS problem may be partly to blame.
As has been mentioned in another not-reply, the main reason for the dearth of new images from Opportunity is that Mars was at conjunction with the sun.
Even if this weren't the case, losing MGS won't put a major strain on rover communications. I don't have more recent numbers handy, but as of Jan 19 2005, MGS had only returned 7% of the data from the rovers compared to the Mars Odyssey relay which returned 90% (with the remaining 3% coming down directly from the rovers).
Most of it was due to Mars being on the opposite side of the sun, which led to comms blackout for for a while.
Warning: its grandpaporn. NSFW.
It's not necessarily that terrible a disaster -- the mission has been a great success and has lasted years beyond what was originally expected. If you are interested in such a table for Mars, though, someone has posted a nice one to wikipedia:
Wikipedia on Exploration of Mars
NASA has recently (since 2000 or so) had a string of successes which are essentially unprecedented in the history of the Mars exploration program -- continuing within the last few weeks with MRO.
Working with US satellite programs, I have come to realize how hard it is to actually take care of a bird in flight. There are so much junk flying around in space that could take out your satellite, not to mention things like solar storms and such, all this you have to track and adjust for. Of course, something's you don't see coming.
d =01-074
http://nasaexplores.nasa.gov/show2_articlea.php?i
In addition, a satellite can go anywhere from 500 degrees to -500 degrees in a single orbit. Even with all this, more often then not satellites are lasting years beyond their expected life.
So give 'em a break...