One such outcome has been the Medipix Collaborations – a family of read-out chips for particle imaging and detection that can count single photons, allowing X-rays and gamma rays to be converted to electrical signals. While such developments are essential to the core research needs of the Centre, they also lead to spinoff applications for the benefit of society at large. To achieve this aim, they need to do a ton of research in other areas, such as development of special particle detectors. We all know CERN as that cool place where physicists play with massive, superconducting rings to smash atoms and subatomic particles to uncover secrets of matter in the Universe. Posted in Space Tagged ESA, gamma ray, gamma ray detector, mission, reaction wheel, space, space debris, space safety, space telescope, telescope Between now and then, a very capable and fast-reacting operations team will keep INTEGRAL doing science for as long as possible. Before the big heavy telescope lost its thrusters, it had already been guided onto a path which will reenter the atmosphere sometime around 2029. Long term, ESA did their part to minimize space debris. In the near future, its automatic emergency recovery procedures will be updated to reflect what the team has learned. INTEGRAL has since returned to work, but this won’t be the last crisis to face an aging space telescope. Control was regained using remaining reaction wheels. But there was enough control to shut down additional systems for a few more hours on battery, and enough telemetry so the team could understand what had happened. Hampering this time-critical recovery effort was the fact that antenna on a tumbling spacecraft could only make intermittent radio contact. With solar panels no longer pointed at the sun, battery power became the critical constraint.
(Another mission-saving hack which the team had shared earlier.) Later it was determined those procedures were dependent on the thrusters, which themselves failed in the summer of 2020. A failed reaction wheel caused the spacecraft to tumble out of control and its automatic emergency recovery procedures didn’t work. Launched in 2002, it has long surpassed its original designed lifespan of two or three years, but nothing lasts forever. Recently ESA’s INTEGRAL team was confronted with a ruthlessly ticking three hour deadline to save the mission.Įuropean Space Agency INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory is one of many space telescopes currently in orbit. Mission critical problems must be solved with whatever’s still working on board, and sometimes there’s very little time. Once launched, most spacecraft are out of reach of any upgrades or repairs.