Wow, I followed this mission and never knew they lost communication with the satellite. They must have been in panic mode since they only get one fly by.
Missed some fields. This is from Nautilus, URL:
http://nautil.us/issue/60/searches/how-nasas-mission-to-pluto-was-nearly-lost
I vaguely remember this. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, though. I guess it was to the NASA staff.
Stuff happens.
The ESA inadvertently turned off the main data reporting channel on Huygens after it was jettisoned from Cassini, shortly before it was to make its descent.
Given the distances, I'm not sure that it was able to be turned back on in time.
I think the data was eventually captured from a redundant, but lower power channel via the Parkes, and other similar class antennas.
Unintentional loss of contact with Earth should never happen to any spacecraft.
What happens when you do not pay your interstellar carrier on time.
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FTA: Something key they discovered very quickly was that just before the spacecraft’s signal stopped, the main computer had been doing two things at once, both of which were computationally demanding. One of these tasks was compressing 63 Pluto images taken previously, in order to free up memory space for the close flyby imaging soon to begin. At the same time, the computer was also receiving the Core load from Earth and storing it in its memory. Could the computer have become overloaded by this intense combination of computational tasks, and as a result rebooted?
Me: This happens when you use Micosoft Windows as we all know it cannot do 2 things at once without slowing to a crawl or rebooting.
FTA: It was quickly estimated that they would have to perform the equivalent of several weeks of work in just three days to start the flyby Core sequence on time on July 7. And it would all have to be done flawlessly.
Me: I remember when Scotty had to restart the warp engines from a cold start in less then 8 minutes. Normal start time was 30 minutes.
Why wasn’t all of the necessary software already on the spacecraft?
L