Data Recorder Malfunction Jeopardizes 30-Year-Old NASA Probe

For the past 30 years , Geotail has been voyage through the magnetised gasbag that surrounds Earth to hit the books this area of our ambiance . But the long - run for commission may be amount to an terminal as NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency recently discovered that the spacecraft ’s last remaining data recorder has failed .

The data recording machine misfunction on June 28 , leaving the spacecraft with no other means to collect scientific discipline data as it journeys through the magnetosphere , NASAannouncedthis workweek . Geotail was primitively equipped with two data recorders , one of which stopped go in 2012 after gathering 20 years ’ worth of data . The remaining recorder carried the foreign mission through until recently when it experienced the malfunction .

charge engineers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) happen upon the anomaly and have been mold to picture out the causal agent and the amount of possible damage done . However , they have so far been unable to recover the spacecraft ’s data recorder , which means that scientific discipline data can no longer be collected or downlinked to primer coat control . NASA and JAXA are currently trying to decide how to intimately move ahead with their joint mission .

An illustration of the Geotail spacecraft.

An illustration of the Geotail spacecraft.Illustration: NASA

Geotail set up on July 24 , 1992 , from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida . The elementary destination of the foreign mission was to study the elongated tail region ofEarth ’s magnetosphere , which is created by solar farting on the nightside of the satellite . world ’s magnetosphere is a giant magnetized field that surrounds our major planet , protect us from solar wind , radiation from the Sun , and cosmic shaft from deep space . The magnetosphere is shaped by Earth ’s magnetic north and south pole , as well as a unwavering stream of particles utter by the Sun .

To observe the magnetosphere , Geotail was place into an extremely elliptical celestial orbit around Earth . The spacecraft performed 14 flybys of the Moon during its first two years to adjust its arena , coming as closelipped as 7,858 mile ( 12,647 kilometers ) of the lunar airfoil . Geotail first observed the far region of the magnetotail , but the spacecraft ’s lower orbit allowed it to get nearer and take the substorms that took position near Earth , in addition to lead just inside the magnetosphere ’s boundary carpenter’s plane on the dayside , accord to NASA .

The mission was originally meant to last four years , but Geotail operate far beyond its bear life . During its 30 years in operation , the spacecraft has sent back worthful data on auroras , the type of stuff being utter by the Sun , and the nature of Earth ’s magnetic field . Geotail has certainly put in the work , but it may be clock time for this spacecraft to finally retire .

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