Small rocks, big problems.
An expensive problem
that’s all $800 Million Space Telescope It was damaged by a small piece of space debris.
in press releaseThe European Space Agency confirmed that the Gaia spacecraft was damaged in April by a fast-moving “micrometeorite,” a tiny space rock that damaged its protective hull.
As the ESA points out, meteorites of this size burn up in Earth’s atmosphere every day,, The impact was much greater.
“At this location, far from Earth’s protective atmosphere, Gaia is frequently hit by such particles. The impacts were expected and the spacecraft was designed to withstand them,” the statement explained. “However, this object struck Gaia at such a high speed and at exactly the wrong angle, damaging the spacecraft’s protective covering.”
The damage created a small gap in the telescope’s exterior, eventually allowing sunlight to filter in. Although the sunlight is much weaker than the ultraviolet light we experience on Earth, it still damaged Gaia’s sensors.
Rubbing salt in the wound
While they were dealing with that problem, ESA engineers faced another one in May: a mysterious technical failure with one of the 106 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) — the sensors that convert light into electrical signals that underpin Gaia’s 1-billion-pixel camera.
The affected CCD is involved in star detection, the agency explained: without it, Gaia would not be able to be sure what it was observing, compromising its ability to carry out its mission.
To make matters worse, Gaia recently It caused a spectacular aurora Around the world, although they are usually tolerable, injuries can make them more susceptible to breakdown.
Despite these first, second and third blows, these problems came more than four years after Gaia’s expected obsolescence.
So far, ESA engineers have been able to tweak the ageing spacecraft’s software to “significantly reduce the number of false positives” and return it to normal operations, but the agency warns that a solar storm could be the “final straw”.
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