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A navigation system glitch that struck NASA’s MAVEN orbiter at Mars earlier this yr has hobbled the spacecraft’s potential to conduct science and research the Pink Planet’s environment.
The MAVEN spacecraft, which has orbited Mars since 2014, went right into a protecting “secure mode” on Feb. 22 when its very important inertial measurement models “started exhibiting anomalous conduct,” NASA officers wrote in a Might 18 replace. Whereas in secure mode, a spacecraft shuts down all science and awaits directions from its flight controllers on how one can get better.
Within the weeks that adopted, NASA managed to revive MAVEN from secure mode, however in a restricted capability. The orbiter is in a secure orbit with its major antenna pointed at Earth to take care of high-rate communications with its flight management workforce.
“On this configuration, nonetheless, MAVEN can not carry out communications relays for different spacecraft on Mars and is performing solely restricted science observations,” NASA officers wrote in the update (opens in new tab). “The mission workforce started science instrument restoration on April 20.” The orbiter usually serves as a communication relay for NASA’s Curiosity rover and Perseverance rover on Mars to beam the most recent photographs and analysis from the Martian floor to Earth.
Associated: A brief history of Missions to Mars
MAVEN’s inertial measurement unit (IMU) system depends on ring laser gryroscopes, that detect the spaceraft’s inertial movement, and 4 response wheels organized in a four-sided pyramid that may spin independently to place the orbiter within the correct orientation, according to a NASA press kit (opens in new tab). The orbiter can be outfitted with two star tracker cameras that may take photographs of stars and feed them right into a stellar detection algorithm to assist the spacecraft decide its orientation in area.
NASA officers reported that MAVEN was in secure mode till April 19, when flight controllers swap the spacecraft from its IMUs to the star-tracking system in what is named “all-stellar mode.”
“All MAVEN’s science devices are presently on-line, however not all of them have been in a position to take information whereas the excessive achieve antenna is restricted to pointing towards Earth,” NASA officers wrote within the replace. “The workforce is presently working to complete checkouts of ‘all stellar’ mode to allow the spacecraft to function in different orientations previous to resuming nominal science and relay operations by the tip of the month.”
NASA launched the MAVEN mission (its identify is brief for Mars Ambiance and Unstable EvolutioN mission) in November 2013 and arrived on the Pink Planet in October 2014. Its mission is to check how Mars misplaced its floor water to turn out to be the dusty purple world we see in the present day. Final month, NASA extended the MAVEN mission, which initially value $671 million, by one other three years to permit the orbiter to proceed its science work.
E mail Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com (opens in new tab) or observe him @tariqjmalik (opens in new tab). Comply with us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab), Facebook (opens in new tab) and Instagram (opens in new tab).
