Tag

Occulter

All articles tagged with #occulter

space-exploration22 days ago•53 min saved

ESA's Proba-3 Coronagraph re-establishes contact after month-long silence

ESA says its Proba-3 Coronagraph spacecraft has reconnected with Earth after a month of silence; an anomaly in February disrupted attitude control and prevented safe-mode entry, and the spacecraft is now in safe mode with its solar panels powering the systems while health checks are conducted to assess possible damage as the Coronagraph and its Occulter continue their formation to study the solar corona by creating artificial eclipses.

via Space|

#coronagraph #esa #occulter

space-exploration1 month ago•53 min saved

Proba-3 falters as ESA’s twin-satellite eclipse mission goes dark

Europe’s Proba-3 formation (two satellites designed to create artificial solar eclipses and study the corona) has lost contact after an anomaly caused one probe to lose orientation. The Coronagraph, which images the sun’s outer atmosphere, and its Occulter partner must stay precisely aligned about 150 meters apart; the incident has led to a progressive attitude loss and solar-power drain, pushing the spacecraft into survival mode. ESA says the root cause is under investigation and teams are exploring ways to steer the Occulter closer to the Coronagraph to diagnose the issue and reestablish contact, with updates expected as the investigation continues (reported after Feb. 14 anomaly, with March 6 ESA update cited).

via Space|

#coronagraph #esa #formation-flying