PFS issue on Venus Express, PFS scanner stuck in its closed position |
PFS issue on Venus Express, PFS scanner stuck in its closed position |
Mar 21 2006, 09:03 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
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 |
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Jun 5 2006, 02:37 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
If someone could clarify for me: What could be done from Earth
to make up for the PFS? -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Guest_DonPMitchell_* |
Jun 5 2006, 08:06 PM
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#3
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Guests |
If someone could clarify for me: What could be done from Earth to make up for the PFS? I think they were hoping to correlate PFS read readings with cloud pictures, to get a better idea of what the mysterious UV-darkening substance is, and also perhaps why the cold collar is different (it appears to be a higher-altitude white haze layer). That's not easy from Earth. In general, the confusion of the Earth's atmosphere has made precise spectroscopy of other planets very difficult. In the case of Venus, there were decades of different scientists publishing, "There's water", "No there isn't", "Yes there is, and we see oxygen too!", "I don't!"... |
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