NASA has established contact with the satellite, which was lost 13 years ago

2018-02-02 11:34

NASA has established contact with the satellite, which was lost 13 years ago
Space Agency NASA regained contact with the satellite, which “got lost” in space for more than 10 years ago.

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The spacecraft Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, or IMAGE abbreviated launched in 2000, reports Rus.Media. It was intended to obtain the first comprehensive images of the atmospheric plasma. His proposable a task he completed in 2002 but not made contact with the Ground in 2005.

Scientists had hoped that the Eclipse that occurred in 2007, will restart the space vehicle system. But when this did not happen, NASA experts began to consider that the satellite is completely lost and is now walking somewhere in the vastness of space. However, in January one Amateur astronomer noticed how he floated in the night sky.

NASA took several weeks to confirm that the object seen in the sky, really lost 13 years ago the satellite IMAGE. It was not easy, because the type of hardware and operating system that are used in this spacecraft are no longer used by the Agency. Since then, the equipment and systems has been updated several times, so NASA had to work hard, how to restore the connection with the device.

The end result is the applied physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins successfully collect the telemetry data from the IMAGE. Now it will take several weeks to analyze the data. They will give you the opportunity not only to learn about the condition of the apparatus, but also may provide new information that the satellite managed to collect during this time.