Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

How's this for a remote support fix? Solar storm early-warning satellite repaired with million-mile software update

Deep Space Climate Observatory ticking again after gyroscope mishap

The Deep Space Climate Observatory – a satellite that warns of incoming space storms that could knacker telecommunications on Earth – is up and running again after being shut down for eight months by a technical glitch.

Launched in 2015 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the bird, known as DSCOVR for short, was sent into orbit between the Earth and the Sun. Circling at a distance of about a million miles away from terra firma, satellite sports instruments designed to detect approaching geomagnetic storms, and alerts us before highly energetic particles from the solar wind pelt our planet.

sun

An EPIC picture of Earth, sunny side up, from one million miles out

READ MORE

It is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an agency that falls under the US government's Department of Commerce, with help from NASA and the Air Force.

In June, boffins realized DSCOVR’s laser gyroscope was malfunctioning, which was rather bad news: DSCOVR needs this gizmo to control its attitude in space. It was put into “safe hold,” a mode that halted all scientific observations for eight months. Thankfully, engineers from NASA and NOAA have now fixed the issue with a software patch.

“Bringing DSCOVR operational again shows the unique skills and adaptability of our NOAA and NASA engineers and the care we are taking to get the maximum life from an aging asset," said Steve Volz, the assistant NOAA administrator for its Satellite and Information Service.

While DSCOVR was asleep, Earth wasn't obliviously spinning through the obsidian void: NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer was used to gather space weather observations for boffins to analyze and forward on to officials and the public.

The observatory is roughly 1.8 meters long and 1.3 metres wide, and features an antenna, two arrays of solar panels attached on either side of its cylindrical body, a propulsion module, and five main instruments: a solar wind plasma sensor, a magnetometer, an electron spectrometer that measures the solar wind output, a radiometer looking at the amount of radiation emitted by Earth, and a pulse height analyzer that measures the rush of solar particles that could frazzle DSCOVR’s own instruments.

Built to last three years, the plucky satellite is still going five years after it was deployed. ®

 

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like