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NASA temporarily loses contact with one of its most distant spacecraft | Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/space

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[–] Sylver 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

It should come back online around October 15th, when it auto-corrects it’s own orientation

[–] elbarto777 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Its* own orientation.

[–] Sylver 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I seriously hate autocorrect doing that. It also loves to make “were” into “we’re”.

[–] elbarto777 2 points 2 years ago

I hear you, kind commenter. It happens to me too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

How is it able to do that? Wouldn't that use up it's limited RCS mass? How does it know where to point?

[–] Sylver 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Usually it’s accomplished with gyroscopes, not RCS fuels. It has a schedule where it auto-orients itself to point back toward Earth, that next scheduled self-fix is in October.

As for how it knows what exact point to look at, I’m not sure! Maybe we’re constantly streaming a radio signal for it to see

[–] randomaccount43543 1 points 2 years ago

If the aliens don’t get to it first 👽