NASA authority reported Monday that they expect the New Horizons spacecraft to be back online on Tuesday after a computer glitch on the weekend endangered its approaching historic flyby of Pluto.
The gallant spacecraft New Horizons is only a week away from its historic rendezvous with the cherished dwarf planet Pluto. However, last weekend the missions’ chief investigators lost contact with the deep-space probe.
During the Independence Celebration on July 4th, most Americans were busy rejoicing the event by popping up beers, burgers, and fireworks, but at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Maryland, a group of experts were chewing their nails and holding their breath when their spacecraft suddenly and mysteriously quit responding.
The $730 million mission is meant to provide the human race with their first real observations of Pluto -the bizarre dwarf planet that orbits on the ledge of our solar system. New Horizons has been pacing toward its objective since 2006, and the end –July 14 – is knocking at the door. By July 15, people are supposed to have access of images of Pluto alongside the clicks of Earth taken from space.
But resolved glitch is a prompt reminder that no space mission is a confirmed guarantee and anything is possible in this July 14 flyby.
By breaking all the silence, New Horizons finally made contact again with its investigators over an hour later, around 3:15 pm, via NASA’s Deep Space Network. Consequently, the investigators quickly figured out that it was the craft’s autopilot that placed itself in a restricted “safe mode.”
According to NASA officials, the glitch was caused by an issue in a programming sequence. This is New Horizon’s concluding maneuvers as it readies for a perfect flyby. Many were startled by NASA’s statement Saturday that the craft needs to be turned back to its “original flight plan” – which made everyone believe that the spacecraft had been knocked off course. But NASA was only discussing about the science plan, and not a physical trajectory.
