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Japan's Space Agency Loses Contact With New X-Ray Telescope Satellite "Hitomi"
As carried here by the San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press reports that Japanese space agency JAXA reports that it has lost contact with its new satellite "Hitomi," deployed last month and designed to explore deep space with X-ray telescopes. The AP story linked quotes Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who surmises that an "energetic event" has sent the craft into a tumble. The agency's release on the failure is terse, but leaves some room for hope:
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) found that communication with the X-ray Astronomy Satellite âoeHitomiâ (ASTRO-H), launched on February 17, 2016 (JST), failed from the start of its operation originally scheduled at 16:40, Saturday March 26 (JST). Up to now, JAXA has not been able to figure out the state of health of the satellite.
While the cause of communication failure is under investigation, JAXA received short signal from the satellite, and is working for recovery.
I don't know about that satellite, but when I'm floating around in a vacuum and I have an energetic event, I feel pretty messed up.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
No space truckin' for you!
As long as they send the stereotypical giant stompy robots, I'm happy with the result.
Who doesn't like giant stompy robots?
As long as they send the stereotypical giant stompy robots, I'm happy with the result.
Who doesn't like giant stompy robots?
I would guess people in the vicinity of the giant stompy parts...
But I'm just guessing...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Sourced from the competition of things you may have read:
https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/714113400008286208 :
Oh this is very very bad. From @spacetrackorg "Breakup Notification: [...] ASTRO H at approx 0820z, 26 Mar 16: 5 associated pieces .."
Suspected causes are a MMOD hit, battery explosion or cryo system overpressure. Suggestoin that "It's too early to write the satellite's obituary", but any good news is very unlikely.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
who writes these headlines?
I'm not saying it was aliens; but... Aliens.
Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris
For a change, this is pretty much exactly what I had guessed upon seeing an unfamiliar acronym.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
âoeHitomiâ
barf
Who doesn't like giant stompy robots?
I would guess people in the vicinity of the giant stompy parts...
Yeah, just look at how people reacted when the Martian stompy bots arrived. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Ommon is the dialect they speak in his village.
I'm thinking likely some of the "strike by object" combined with "pressure release."
It is from Japan, it is probably written in Ruby or C.
As you can see from these posts, Slashdot's allowance of anonymous posts is to its detriment. End Anonymous Cowards, and put in a real vote up/down system that allows everyone to vote on every post.
--- Generation X: The first generation to have SIG lines inferior to their parents... ---
No great loss. The pictures it would have returned were bound to be heavily pixelated anyway.
Have gnu, will travel.
Japanese galaxy porn is the worst anyway, since they will censor the best parts.
It probably makes more sense in Japanese.