NASA shock as spacecraft lost for 13 YEARS starts signalling again and NO ONE knows why

NASA announced the IMAGE spacecraft – which went missing in 2005 – appears to have rebooted and has made contact with Earth.

The space agency now believes it can revive the spacecraft’s mission of studying the Earth’s magnetosphere and solar storms.

Boffins have however been left scratching their heads as to why the spacecraft has begun signalling, with only one half of the spaceship operational.

Amateur astronomer Scott Tilley rediscovered the IMAGE probe, initially thinking it was just a piece of space junk.

Scientists have said they did not know why the craft has rebooted, and are now working to establish exactly what happened to IMAGE.

“There are several puzzles that the team is investigating to better understand the spacecraft’s health”
Hatfield

Miles Hatfield, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, announced yesterday the spacecraft appears to be in “good shape”.

He confirmed the space agency are going to work on turning on the probe’s scientific instruments and added IMAGE’s battery is fully charged.

The scientists admitted however they need to find an old machine that can run the ship's 12-year-old computer programs.

NASA engineers are setting up a “small control centre” to try communicating with the probe an regain control of the spaceship.

Hatfield said: “There are several puzzles that the team is investigating to better understand the spacecraft’s health and how best to communicate with it.

"What caused the spacecraft to reboot and begin sending signal again? Why is one side of the on-board electronics working and not the other?”

Tilley found IMAGE while searching for the lost top secret Zuma probe that was launched for the US Government by SpaceX.

He detected its signal from deep space and handed the data to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre.

Fellow skywatcher Cees Bassa suggested the reboot may have been triggered by eclipses which triggered a power drain followed by a reset of the solar powered spaceship.

Hatfield said: "Should any of the instruments be functional, NASA will convene a panel of external scientists to assess the science potential in the context of constrained budgets for operating spacecraft.”

IMAGE was initially launched in 2000 and contributed data to more than 400 articles and scholars research papers while studying the magnetosphere.

There are fears Earth’s magnetic poles could flip, triggering major climatic changes, causing mass blackouts, and killing millions.

Read Again NASA shock as spacecraft lost for 13 YEARS starts signalling again – and NO ONE knows why : http://ift.tt/2E3ETtq

Let's block ads! (Why?)