Posted on 01/21/2005 6:34:25 AM PST by Mike Fieschko
SPOKANE, Wash. - David Atkinson spent 18 years designing an experiment for the unmanned space mission to Saturn. Now some pieces of it are lost in space. Someone forgot to turn on the instrument Atkinson needed to measure the winds on Saturn's largest moon.
"The story is actually fairly gruesome," the University of Idaho scientist said in an e-mail from Germany, the headquarters of the European Space Agency. "It was human error — the command to turn the instrument on was forgotten."
The mission to study Saturn and its moons was launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., a joint effort by NASA (news - web sites), the European agency and the Italian space agency. Last Friday, Huygens, the European space probe sent to the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, transmitted the first detailed pictures of the frozen surface.
Atkinson and his team were at European space headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, waiting for their wind measurements to arrive.
The probe was to transmit data on two channels, A and B, Atkinson said. His Doppler wind experiment was to use Channel A, a very stable frequency.
But the order to activate the receiver, or oscillator, for Channel A was never sent, so the entire mission operated through Channel B, which is less stable, Atkinson said.
"I (and the rest of my team) waited and waited and waited," he wrote, as the probe descended. "We watched the probe enter and start transmitting data, but our instrument never turned on."
Officials for the European Space Agency said last week they would investigate to learn what happened. They were not available for comment on Thursday, nor did NASA officials immediately respond to telephone messages.
Atkinson wrote in his e-mail that fellow scientists rushed to comfort him and his team.
Most of his team has returned home, but Atkinson has remained in Germany because he still has a task to perform — reconstructing the entry and descent trajectory of the probe.
There is hope that some of his data survived.
"We do have Channel B data and although driven by a very poor and unstable oscillator, we may be able to get a little bit of data," he wrote.
Also, he said some of the Channel A signal reached Earth and was picked up by radio telescopes. "We now have some of this data and lots of work to do to try to catch up," he wrote.
Even so, he said the overall space mission was a huge success, and the Europeans in particular were thrilled with the success of their Huygens probe.
"In total, the core of our team has invested something like 80 man years on this experiment, 18 of which are mine," Atkinson wrote. "I think right now the key lesson is this — if you're looking for a job with instant and guaranteed success, this isn't it."
I guess the ESA never thought of a "Check List"
Note to self: Put up a post-it reminding me to tie a string around my finger so I can remember to email myself that I need a Palm Pilot to help remember stuff.
Maybe it's with the 350 lost pictures.
bttt
So the EURO'S still forgetting things???
My first thought. Of if they had a checklist, they never instituted a series of premission dry runs, walk throughs and reviews. Sheesh. I would have thought they would have gone through this dozens of times. It's not like forgetting your ATM card when you go to the grocery store.
From what I heard, Channel A never quite got around to functioning.
Looks like it was that Channel A didn't get turned on ... but Channel A was critical to getting worthwhile data. Kinda like building a house without a ruler - the experiment ran, but the measurements were extremely innacurate.
L,
I mean, seriously...if I spent 18 years on something, it would be awfully important to me. So important, I doubt I'd leave it to my trusted peers to make sure it was activated.
ESA has very severe NASA envy, although I don't know why. I think they have an affinity for large, clunky government business systems.
Theis guy's not European (from what I can read from the story), so therefore his experiments suck hind teat. A very typical European attitude on the part of ESA, actually.
All that is especially true if the command is to wake up the onboard human crew.....
Well at least the thing worked. Their last probe was lost in space.
By their joyous reaction, you'd think they just landed on the Moon...oh wait, WE did that.
Never send a weenie to do a brat's job.
This wouldn't give me the warm and fuzzies if I ever had to fly that behemoth Airbus.
You're right....think the Voyagers, Galileo, et al spoiled us abit.
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