Hope Fading for Recovery of European Radar Imaging Satellite
upstart writes:
Hope fading for recovery of European radar imaging satellite - SpaceNews:
European Space Agency officials said prospects are dimming for the recovery of a radar imaging satellite that malfunctioned nearly three months ago, but that efforts to save the spacecraft continue.
The Sentinel-1B spacecraft malfunctioned in December, keeping the spacecraft from collecting C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. ESA said in January that they were investigating a problem with the power system for the SAR payload on the satellite, launched in April 2016.
In a Feb. 25 update, ESA said work was continuing to investigate problems with both the main and backup power system for the payload but that effort had yet to identify a root cause of the anomaly. The problem doesn't affect operations of the spacecraft itself, which has remained under control.
ESA leaders were not optimistic about the prospects of recovering Sentinel-1B. "The situation doesn't look very good, but we have not given up hope yet," Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said in response to a question about the status of the satellite. "We are still looking into technical options of what the root cause could be."
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.