Various options are still available to nudge the important instrument:
It has now been two weeks since the on-target launch of the European Space Agency's 1.5 billion euro probe that is bound for the moons of Jupiter.
This process had been going well until the space agency attempted to extend a 16-meter-long antenna that is part of its radar instrument. The Radar for Icy Moons Exploration, or RIME, is an important scientific instrument on the spacecraft because its ground-penetrating radar will allow for examinations of the interior of intriguing moons such as Europa and Ganymede.
On Friday, the European Space Agency said the long antenna remains stuck to its mounting bracket and is only extended about one-third of its full length. Engineers at the spacecraft's mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, are working to solve the issue.
"The current leading hypothesis is that a tiny stuck pin has not yet made way for the antenna's release. In this case, it is thought that just a matter of millimeters could make the difference to set the rest of the radar free," the agency said. "Various options are still available to nudge the important instrument out of its current position. The next steps to fully deploy the antenna include an engine burn to shake the spacecraft a little, followed by a series of rotations that will turn Juice, warming up the mount and radar, which are currently in the cold shadows."
Given that there are several options for getting the antenna unstuck and nearly eight years of voyaging left before Juice reaches the Jovian system, Europe probably has a good chance of resolving this issue.
It's also worth noting that the rest of the Juice spacecraft is healthy, and the remainder of the commissioning process has gone smoothly. However, while this antenna is not mission-critical and there are plenty of other scientific instruments on board, this is one of the most important ones.
This issue is reminiscent of the difficulty NASA had in deploying the high-gain antenna on the Galileo spacecraft, which launched to Jupiter in 1989 on the space shuttle. This antenna, needed for high-rate communications between the spacecraft and Earth, remained only partially deployed after years of effort to resolve the issue. NASA ultimately had to end up using a low-gain antenna, which resulted in a much slower rate of data from Galileo.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 30, @11:41PM (5 children)
Let gravity pull the pin where it belongs!! /sarcasm
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by corey on Sunday April 30, @11:56PM (3 children)
It seems like a little light robotic arm on the side of these long range probes might be useful. With just a poker on the end or something, with reach around the main mechanical parts of the probe. Failure of these deployment systems is often feared and seems to be often?
Otherwise would it be worth doing some dual redundant mechanisms for these deployment systems?
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 01, @12:09AM
Maybe they can contact the Brits, and hire Doctor Who to take the Tardis out there, and poke around in it.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Some call me Tim on Monday May 01, @01:13AM
Actually sir, I think you've hit the nail on the head! A "reach around" is exactly what this probe needs to stiffen things up!
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday May 02, @08:05AM
Which instruments would you give up to allow you to put the extra mass on board?
(Score: 2) by PastTense on Monday May 01, @05:01AM
Here is a video of the antenna:
https://spacetech-i.com/news/news-details/spacetech-antenna-for-juice-rime-installed-and-ready-to-fly [spacetech-i.com]
It looks awfully flimsy to me.