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NASA Confirms: Its Undead Satellite is Operational
Late last month, news broke that a satellite sleuth had spotted what appeared to be a lost NASA probe alive and sending out data. Now, NASA has officially confirmed the identity of the satellite as the IMAGE orbiter and is in the process of restoring the capability of processing the data that it is sending down. While we don't yet know whether any of its instruments are operational, one of its original team members is arguing that the hardware can still produce valuable science.
And NASA has determined that the craft's return to life is even more mysterious than we'd realized. When IMAGE originally lost contact, it was using its backup hardware after the primary set shut down. Upon its return, IMAGE is using its primary hardware again.
For those interested in all the details of the saga, NASA has put up a page where it's posting updates on its attempts to revive the satellite. In late January, the Goddard Flight Center was given time on NASA's Deep Space Network to have a listen to the craft. By the end of the month, the agency confirmed that this was indeed IMAGE and started trying to produce a software environment that could process the data it was sending.
"The types of hardware and operating systems used in the IMAGE Mission Operations Center no longer exist," NASA's Miles Hatfield wrote, "and other systems have been updated several versions beyond what they were at the time, requiring significant reverse-engineering."
Maybe NASA could make the raw feeds and existing specs available on the internet and let some of us have at it? Offer a bounty to the first folks who can demonstrate a program that can properly decode it?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday February 09 2018, @09:51PM (1 child)
The news here is how quickly NASA abandons things and burns bridges.
Had the satellite been working all along, they probably would have shut it off by now.
Launched in 2005, and they can't do anything with it because all of their systems have changed!!!???
Every piece of equipment from 2005 that I still have is operational I can still talk to it. I've got disk drives older than that. I've got Linux servers running versions from 2005.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday February 09 2018, @11:11PM
Agreed. Taxpayer money wasted- the hardware was sold for scrap value, software erased?
But what hardware? Is it all that specialized? NASA, please be specific. They can communicate and receive data from IMAGE, so it's not RF stuff. There are lots of us who might have, or know where to get the hardware and would love to help, as did the amateur astronomer who found the IMAGE satellite.
But more to the point: what software? You mean they didn't keep copies? How difficult is that?
And it can't be adapted to "modern" hardware??
A few years ago I remember reading articles about NASA hiring forensic engineers- to comb through "space junkyards" and reverse-engineer old rockets, control systems, etc. NASA forgot how to do space.
I suppose it creates jobs... but society is running in place. No flying cars for you!