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NASA Finds, Fixes Small Glitch in LADEE Moon Probe

Posted by timothy on from the now-for-some-space-mining-action dept.

Friday's moon-bound NASA launch from Wallops Island went well, but, says NBC News, "[H]ours after the 11:27 p.m. EDT (0327 GMT) liftoff, NASA officials reported that the spacecraft's reaction wheels — which spin to position and stabilize LADEE in space without using precious thruster fuel — unexpectedly shut down. By Saturday afternoon, the glitch had been traced to safety limits programmed into LADEE before launch to protect the reaction wheel system, NASA officials said. Those fault protection limits caused LADEE to switch off its reaction wheels shortly after powering them up, according to a mission status update. Engineers have since disabled the safety limits causing the glitch and taking extra care in restoring the fault-protection protocols."

5 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. wheels... by Longjmp · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe NASA are rocket scientists, but it seems they still have trouble getting wheels going
    ;-)

    --
    There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
    1. Re:wheels... by confused+one · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ok, here's a challenge for you... design a flywheel based guidance system. make it redundant. make it work in the most inhospitable environment known to man -- space. hard vacuum. reactive ions (free ionic oxygen). radiation. operating temperature range -200 degF to 200 degF. The only cooling option for your motors and electronics is via a liquid loop and a large radiator. power is limited to a few tens of watts from a solar panel. You have to design it so it works for a decade without maintenance or repairs. good luck.

    2. Re:wheels... by confused+one · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I work for a sensor company. If you want Kelvin, then I'll use Kelvin. I don't really care if it's Celsius, Rankine, or frequency of cricket chirps. Our environmental chambers happen to be set up in Fahrenheit, because our production staff is comfortable with those units; and I used degF because it's what the U.S. centric audience would know. You might be surprised to know that in the real world, people might not use the scale you expect them to, even if it's a standard.

  2. Switched them off because of a silly safety limit? by osu-neko · · Score: 3, Funny

    Jeb would never do that. Jeb has no limits.

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  3. Just like Star Trek... by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 3, Funny

    Every time they had an insurmountable engineering problem, the Chief Engineer just says "override the safeties" and everything is fine. Good to know NASA is finally catching up to The Final Frontier!

    --
    In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky