JAXA lost contact with the satellite on March 26 during a routine maneuver to reorient the spacecraft to look at a different region of the sky. The agency was initially cautiously optimistic about restoring control of the spacecraft, stating it had received three brief signals in the days after the anomaly it thought it was the spacecraft.
However, in its April 28 statement, JAXA said it concluded the signals it detected were not from Hitomi at all because they were not at the wrong frequencies. “JAXA will cease the efforts to restore ASTRO-H and will focus on the investigation of anomaly causes,” the agency stated. “We will carefully review all phases from design, manufacturing, verification, and operations to identify the causes that may have led to this anomaly including background factors.” According to an April 15 briefing posted on the JAXA website, investigators believe a chain of errors with the spacecraft’s attitude control system caused the spacecraft to spin up enough for the solar panels and other components to break off. The problem started when Hitomi’s attitude control system determined the spacecraft was rotating after a planned maneuver, when in fact it was not. That system activated a reaction wheel to stop the phantom spin, which created a real spin. That spin saturated the reaction wheel, triggering a “safe hold” mode in the spacecraft. The spacecraft fired thrusters in its reaction control system to halt the spin, but an incorrect control parameter in that system instead caused the spacecraft to spin even faster. Investigators believe that spacecraft controllers updated the parameter to reflect a different spacecraft configuration after the deployment of an instrument boom, but may have done so incorrectly. The loss of Hitomi is a setback not just for JAXA, but also for several other space agencies. The x-ray astronomy satellite included contributions from NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, including an x-ray instrument developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. For x-ray astronomers, Hitomi was one of the biggest missions this decade. “JAXA expresses the deepest regret for the fact that we had to discontinue the operations of ASTRO-H,” the agency said in its statement, “and extends our most sincere apologies to everyone who has supported ASTRO-H believing in the excellent results ASTRO-H would bring, to all overseas and domestic partners including NASA, and to all foreign and Japanese astrophysicists who were planning to use the observational results from ASTRO-H for their studies.” OneWeb made its filing under its originally incorporated name, WorldVu Satellites Ltd., and has hired Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP and Wiley Rein LLP as legal counsel for the procedure. OneWeb’s newly announced Florida satellite facility is scheduled to be starting high-rate production to meet the company’s schedule of launching 720 satellites between early 2018 and the end of 2019. To meet that schedule, OneWeb is working on multiple fronts. OneWeb Chief Executive Matt O’Connell said the company had begun preparing a second around of financing and had hired Deutsche Bank and Barclays to sound out investor interest in OneWeb’s project, whose ultimate goal is providing broadband access to the most isolated of rural communities. OneWeb in June 2015 raised $500 million from mainly strategic investors, meaning companies whose financing was in part done to guarantee them a role on OneWeb’s contracting team. But the investors also included cellular network operators Bharti Enterprises of India and Grupo Salinas of Mexico – companies that can be of help to OneWeb as it seeks regulatory approval in each nation in which it plans to operate. O’Connell said the absence of financial investors from the first round was not a concern. “It makes more sense for strategic investors to get things going,” O’Connell said. “When I was in venture capital our pitch was: Anyone can give you money. What you want is a smart investor with skin in the game, who can offer you more than money.” OneWeb’s constellation consists of 720 satellites – 40 spacecraft in each of the 18 orbital plans – in low Earth orbit, covering every corner of the globe. The track record of other satellite operators seeking approvals in nations such as India and China – the biggest and among the most difficult for foreigners to enter – suggests that the OneWeb regulatory battle will be long. But O’Connell – who was hired perhaps as much for his investment banking background as for his former role as chief executive of geospatial imaging provider GeoEye — said the company would begin as a business-to-business offer to small and midsize companies. Much of the legwork in securing licenses will be done by OneWeb’s local partners. O’Connell said OneWeb founder Greg Wyler’s vision of broadband for every poor village is as valid as ever, but will be realized only after OneWeb secures a place in the market.The solar system is made up of the sun and everything that orbits around it, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets and meteoroids. It extends from the sun, called Sol by the ancient Romans, and goes past the four inner planets, through the Asteroid Belt to the four gas giants and on to the disk-shaped Kipper Belt and far beyond to the giant, spherical Oort Cloud and the teardrop-shaped Heliopolis. Scientists estimate that the edge of the solar system is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun.Thanks for visiting be sure to take the survey, because every submission that we get we give charity $100. |
AuthorEbram is my name and I love space and all of the cool stuff in it if you like it too then this is the place to be. My future space.I love space so I made this for all the other space lovers like me. ;)ArchivesCategoriesVisitor counter |