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Beyond Mars, the Mini MarCO Spacecraft Fall Silent
Before the pair of briefcase-sized spacecraft known collectively as MarCO launched last year, their success was measured by survival: If they were able to operate in deep space at all, they would be pushing the limits of experimental technology.
Now well past Mars, the daring twins seem to have reached their limit. It's been over a month since engineers have heard from MarCO, which followed NASA's InSight to the Red Planet. At this time, the mission team considers it unlikely they'll be heard from again.
[...] WALL-E was last heard from on Dec. 29; EVE, on Jan. 4. Based on trajectory calculations, WALL-E is currently more than 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) past Mars; EVE is farther, almost 2 million miles (3.2 million kilometers) past Mars.
The mission team has several theories for why they haven't been able to contact the pair. WALL-E has a leaky thruster. Attitude-control issues could be causing them to wobble and lose the ability to send and receive commands. The brightness sensors that allow the CubeSats to stay pointed at the Sun and recharge their batteries could be another factor. The MarCOs are in orbit around the Sun and will only get farther away as February wears on. The farther they are, the more precisely they need to point their antennas to communicate with Earth.
The MarCOs won't start moving toward the Sun again until this summer. The team will reattempt to contact the CubeSats at that time, though it's anyone's guess whether their batteries and other parts will last that long.
Previously: InSight Mars Landing Successful; MarCO Sends Pics
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday February 06 2019, @04:32PM (2 children)
Lasers do become diffuse over astronomical distances.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/lcrd/overview.html [nasa.gov]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Communications_Relay_Demonstration [wikipedia.org]
The concept has already been tested between the Earth and the Moon, has been proposed for communications with Mars, and is the only option that is practical for something like a Pluto orbiter.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:40PM
Wow, I didn't even realize Ka-band could be that tight. It means that navigation precision will matter a lot in the future, resulting in much more efficient communications.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday February 11 2019, @07:56PM
Small portion of the U.S.A., it sounds SUPER discreet, right? But unfortunately the Chinese beat us to that one. They're doing Quantum Satellite Laser Communicator. So hard for our guys to pick that one up -- unless we have a guy in China. And we had many guys (& gals) in China. Until Obama happened, RIP!! So now we're looking at, what if we float people over China. Folks floating in space between China and the Laser. Looking for the Laser Beam. And possibly blowing up that satellite. Space Force all the way!