A NASA spacecraft has returned to normal after weeks of turbulence in space.
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) allowed consoles to reset the computer on March 2, according to agency officials. He said on Monday (Opens in a new tab) (March 6), ending three weeks of trouble trying to reach the spacecraft.
The mission team performed a “security code reset,” or external reset of the spacecraft, allowing controllers to regain control of the unresponsive spacecraft two full days before IBEX was scheduled to perform a self-reset and power cycle on Saturday (March 4).
Agency officials added that everything is now back to normal. “The IBEX telemetry shows that the spacecraft is fully operational and operating normally.”
Related: The mysterious energy bar at the edge of the solar system is a cosmic roadmap
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer was launched in October 2008 to study the outer edge of the heliosphere, focusing on the “bubble” that marks the boundary between the sun’s environment and interstellar space.
The spacecraft fully mapped the heliosphere in its first year after launch and takes pictures of the entire sky every six months. His most famous discovery is the detection of a dense region of particles, dubbed the “Ibex Ribbon”.
The agency first reported problems with “command recovery” in late February, but confirmed that the spacecraft itself was intact despite an unexpected computer reset and IBEX being put into emergency mode. “The flight programs are still running, and the spacecraft systems appear to be working,” NASA officials said. Update February 24th (Opens in a new tab).
IBEX is part of a network of spacecraft that studies the solar wind (or a constant stream of particles from our sun) along with the sun itself to gain a better understanding of how the heliosphere shapes our solar system.
The spacecraft had spent 15 years in space, and had been operating for more than a decade when its main mission ended in 2011.
Elizabeth Howell is co-author of “Why am I taller (Opens in a new tab)? (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book on space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @employee (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @employee (Opens in a new tab) or Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
“Reader. Infuriatingly humble coffee enthusiast. Future teen idol. Tv nerd. Explorer. Organizer. Twitter aficionado. Evil music fanatic.”