'Firemode reset' sees Interstellar Boundary Explorer back on the job:
NASA engineers have managed to restore the Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft to working condition by using the oldest trick in the computing book.
IBEX was put into contingency mode in February after NASA reset its onboard systems and the almost 15-year-old spacecraft's flight computer subsequently failed to respond to commands uploaded from mission control. Engineers have since performed a so-called "firecode reset" as the craft's orbit reached its closest point to Earth.
"To take the spacecraft out of a contingency mode, the mission team performed a firecode reset (which is an external reset of the spacecraft) instead of waiting for the spacecraft to perform an autonomous reset and power cycle on March 4," NASA confirmed on Monday.
"After the firecode reset, command capability was restored. IBEX telemetry shows that the spacecraft is fully operational and functioning normally."
Launched in 2008, the IBEX spacecraft carries instruments to detect energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) that form when hot ions from the solar wind collide with cold gaseous atoms from the interstellar medium, the stuff in-between stars in outer space.
Using data collected from the IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo sensors, astronomers can plot the boundaries of the Solar System. All the planets and other astronomical objects are encased in a bubble known as the "heliosphere" created by the solar wind.
[...] Fixing the satellite will allow astronomers to continue gathering data on the Sun's activity and solar wind for a while yet.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Wednesday March 08, @11:07PM
The new code is now:
0118 999 881 999 119 725 3
You burke...
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, @01:14AM
Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: “You cannot fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong.”
Knight turned the machine off and on.
The machine worked.
(Score: 4, Funny) by ilsa on Thursday March 09, @01:24AM (1 child)
Was it running Windows?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 09, @02:34PM
I sure hope not.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday March 09, @03:12PM (1 child)
They can't have shut it down completely; if they had the electronics that detects the turn-on signal would not have been able to work.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday March 09, @04:18PM
There's not documentation for this, but my intuition tells me this wasn't a "shutdown -r -t 0". Comms delays mean spacecraft have to operate semi-autonomously, and my guess is what they used here was the "Fire Code" reset the spacecraft would trigger if it detected a fire onboard. It would cut power to everything so whatever melted can cool down, probably by opening up the main contactors on the RTG and battery. Then the timer dings, the relays close, and the absolute minimum of systems turn back on in fail-safe mode to establish comms to mission control for further instructions.
It's probably implemented as discrete hardware with redundancy since a malfunction of this subsystem would mean complete loss of mission.