PFS issue on Venus Express, PFS scanner stuck in its closed position Options

[Rakhir]

Bad news for PFS. I hope they will be able to solve this issue.

The PFS scanner is stuck in its closed position.
Several attempts to move it were made at the time, but the instrument did not respond. Experts suspected a thermal problem by which low temperatures were blocking the rotation of the mechanism.
Another attempt to move the scanner was made on 16 March 2006, in warmer flight conditions. Unfortunately, the scanner remains stuck.

The next opportunity to perform another test on the spacecraft will be end of April, after the Venus Orbit Insertion.

From http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=38964

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

I'm somewhat inclined to be forgiving where moving-part problems on spacecraft are concerned, precisely because they ARE so common -- and so frequently connected with differential thermal expansion or contraction of different parts of the spacecraft, which can be hard to forecast even during ground tests. But we do have here further proof that it's always best to err on the side of excessive strength in your actuators.

(Note that -- if there hadn't been an astronaut standing by -- the failure of the Gamma Ray Observatory's antenna boom to deploy might have been the most expensive moving-part space failure of them all. You can perhaps interpret this as an argument for retaining at least small manned orbiting space vehicles through the current period -- or you can interpret it to mean that we need small orbiting emergency-repair robots capable of tugging on stuck parts.)

[djellison]

or you can interpret it to mean that we need small orbiting emergency-repair robots capable of tugging on stuck parts.

You mean something in the style of the robotic hubble mission which you love to hate

Doug