NASA Solar Forecasting Takes A Hit As Sun-Gazing Spacecraft Stops Phoning Home

One of the STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft stopped phoning home to Earth on Oct. 1 “immediately after a planned reset of the spacecraft”, NASA said in an update last week.

.... NASA didn’t say how badly solar weather forecasts are affected, but in other materials they have said both STEREO spacecraft are a crucial part of this work.

STEREO’s pair of satellites ... aim to better map Sun eruptions ( “coronal mass ejections”) whose charged particles can disrupt satellite communications during solar storms. The mission has been ongoing since 2006 and they’ve viewed the far side of the Sun since 2011. What caused one of them to stop talking to us is unknown, but NASA said recovery attempts are ongoing.

Next year.... the Sun will block our view of one of the spacecraft at a time. As NASA explained in a July update, “radio receivers on Earth will not be able to distinguish STEREO’s signal from the sun’s radiation.”

This is affecting the mission in two ways. First, there is a period where the antennas on the spacecraft must be repositioned to avoid getting cooked by the Sun. Some data will flow, but it will be in lower resolution. STEREO-Ahead entered this period on Aug. 20, and STEREO-Behind was supposed to send high-resolution data until Dec. 1.

Then there’s a time when each spacecraft will be completely blocked by the Sun. STEREO-Behind was supposed to enter this period from Jan. 22 to March 23, 2015 with its twin still collecting data at this time. But then will come a period where STEREO-Ahead will be out of contact: March 24 to July 7, 2015. If STEREO-Behind can’t fill in for STEREO-Ahead at this time as planned, a data gap could loom.

Solar/Terrestrial Ralations satellite? That was surely named by liberals. I always laugh at liberals and their acronyms. They pick the a name, like STEREO, and pick out words to make the name match, sort of.

Liberals love acronyms, like SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Program (where did that A come from?)

2 posted on 10/14/2014 8:16:57 AM PDT by webheart (We are all pretty much living in a fiction.)

3 posted on 10/14/2014 8:47:10 AM PDT by RoadGumby (This is not where I belong, Take this world and give me Jesus.)

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