...from today's "Space.com":
World Space Congress Astronotes: Updates Throughout the Day October 13 World Space Congress: CONTOUR Update - No Smoking Gun On Monday, an internal team of the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is turning over its findings to a NASA troubleshooting team looking into what went wrong with the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) mission. The spacecraft was lost to space on August 15, shortly after firing its STAR 30BP solid-propellant rocket motor in order to depart low Earth orbit. That firing was known to have under-performed. Insiders here at the World Space Congress say that, as yet, "no smoking gun" has been found regarding why the spacecraft has failed to respond to Earth commands. However, APL investigators have made some headway into possible reasons the CONTOUR mission went astray. -- Leonard David Asteroid Wake-up Call NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft sitting atop asteroid Eros is getting a wake-up call from Earth in December. Whether it responds is another matter. After circling the space rock for almost a full year, the NASA probe landed on Eros on February 12, 2001. Carrying out extra science duties directly on the surface, NEAR was turned off on February 28, its mission deemed fully successful. Now a signal is to be transmitted to the spacecraft to see if it responds. Using one of the large Deep Space Network radio dishes, one sweep of Eros is planned on December 13. While space engineers attending the World Space Congress admit chances are slim of getting a peep out of NEAR, a response would show how robust spacecraft electronics could be in surviving deep freeze temperatures. == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
