 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 by Nancy Jones for GSFC News Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 20, 2022
On February 22, 2022, NASA's MAVEN spacecraft went into safe mode when the spacecraft's Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) began exhibiting anomalous behavior. The spacecraft is currently out of safe mode, stable and in Earth-nadir mode, pointing its high gain antenna toward Earth to facilitate high-rate communications. In this configuration, however, MAVEN cannot perform communications relays for other spacecraft on Mars and is performing only limited science observations. The mission team began science instrument recovery on April 20. Safe mode began when the IMUs, navigation instruments that sense the spacecraft's rotation and control the pointing of the orbiter's antenna and science instruments, exhibited anomalies when turning on after a power cycle. MAVEN stayed in safe mode until April 19 when the mission team switched the spacecraft to rely on stellar navigation instead of the IMUs, which is known as "all stellar" mode. All MAVEN's science instruments are currently online, but not all of them have been able to take data while the high gain antenna is restricted to pointing toward Earth. The team is currently working to finish checkouts of "all stellar" mode to enable the spacecraft to operate in other orientations prior to resuming nominal science and relay operations by the end of the month.
Physicists explain how type of aurora on Mars is formed Iowa City IA (SPX) May 19, 2022 Physicists led by the University of Iowa have learned how a type of aurora on Mars is formed. In a new study, the physicists studied discrete aurora, a light-in-the-sky display that occurs mostly during the night in the red planet's southern hemisphere. While scientists have known about discrete aurora on Mars-which also occur on Earth-they did not know how they formed. That's because Mars does not have a global magnetic field like Earth, which is a main trigger for aurora, also called the northern and ... read more
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Google
