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Power system glitch halts European satellite mission BY JUSTIN RAY AND STEPHEN CLARK SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: October 31, 2005
"Thorough analysis over the weekend indicates that a failure in the electrical power system onboard the spacecraft is preventing the batteries from charging, resulting in a shutdown of the satellite," the European Space Agency said in a press statement this morning. "There is a small but significant possibility of recovery, the likelihood of which is being ascertained by ongoing testing." The Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative, began developing the SSETI Express microsatellite two years ago to serve as a motivational aid and learning tool before more complex missions are undertaken. "Naturally, the SSETI teams are disappointed that we lost contact, but the mission has still been a success from both an educational and a technical standpoint", says Project Manager Neil Melville. "The main goal of the mission was to educate students by having them involved hands-on in all the different aspects of a space mission, and now we really have experienced everything". During its brief life in space, SSETI Express had two-way communications with the Aalborg University ground station and allowed radio amateurs all over the world to download telemetry data as designed. The 137-pound satellite was supposed to take pictures of Earth, serve the amateur radio community with S-band and UHF radio systems and release three Cubesat picosatellites. The Cubesats UWE-1 and XI-V were successfully deployed, allowing their respective ground teams to acquire communications with the free-flying craft. However, the third Cubesat is missing. Although some have suggested that it never separated from the SSETI Express mothership, ESA says there is evidence to say all three passengers were released. The University of Wurzburg's Experimental satellite 1, or UWE-1 for short, was built by students in Germany to experiment with Internet-related communications for use with space missions. The XI-V Cubesat came from the University of Tokyo with the purpose of demonstrating newly-developed solar cells in space and snapping Earth images using a commercial off-the-shelf digital camera. The presumed-lost Ncube-2 from students in Norway carried an automated identification system (AIS) used to receive GPS signals that would be received and then transmitted to ground sites. A reindeer named Rudolf was to be equipped with a collar containing a complete AIS transmitter and tracked as it walked around the Hardangervidda national park in Norway. SSETI Express was put together in a remarkably short period of time. Fifteen teams totaling more than 100 students from 9 countries participated in an initial planning meeting in December 2003 before splitting up to focus on the design and manufacture of their specific components and systems. Further meetings were largely held in online chat rooms, while actual conferences were conducted twice a year. The mission objectives included helping prepare for SSETI's next project - the European Student Earth Orbiter planned for launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket around 2008. "Even if we don't recover contact with SSETI Express, it was still a very worthwhile mission for everyone. We will take many lessons learned on to our next educational satellite project, SSETI ESEO", says Roger Elaerts, ESA's Head of Education Department. |
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