Nasa loses contact with Deep Impact spacecraft - Times of India

NEW DELHI: After travelling over 7 billion kilometer in space, Nasa's Deep Impact spacecraft has lost contact with Earth. Launched in 2005, Deep Impact became famous when it launched a smaller spacecraft to crash into oncoming comet Tempel 1 to observe the impact. Deep Impact was renamed Epoxi after its mission was extended to observe comets and stars with transiting exoplanets. The craft lost contact with Earth sometime between 11 August and 14 August, chief scientist Michael A'Hearn of the University o f Maryland said. Commands to put the craft in hibernation, or safe mode, were unsuccessful and Deep Impact is now spinning out of control, the scientific journal Nature reported on September 5. Engineers have found that a software communications glitch reset the craft's computer. They are now trying to work out how to communicate with the distant craft. All this is like groping in the dark as scientists are unsure whether to broadcast signals to the vehicle's high-gain or low-gain antenna because its orientation is not known. Mission scientists are racing against the clock because the craft's batteries rely on power provided by Deep Impact's solar panels, Nature reported. If the panels on the wayward craft happen to be pointing in a direction where they receive partial sunlight, the batteries could last for a few months. But if the panels are pointed away from the Sun, the batteries would die in just a few days. Once the batteries are gone, Deep Impact can no lon ger be revived, A'Hearn said. After sending spectacular images of Tempel 1 in 2005, the craft was successfully guided through the debris of the comet's tail. In 2007 it tried to take photographs of comet Boethin but it was too far away. Scientists then maneuvered it for three Earth fly-bys. Then it took photographs of comet Hartley 2 in 2010. Recently it was commanded to look at comet ISON which is approaching the Sun and is expected to crash into the Sun later this year. However, these images of ISON will now be lost forever - scientists have not received any of them. via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEVEjNfeAjQsdHFLUOFK6OHMi32XA&url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Nasa-loses-contact-with-Deep-Impact-spacecraft/articleshow/22363522.cms

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