Showing posts with label Lost Communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lost Communication. Show all posts
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Bill Nye's LightSail Spacecraft – Communication Lost
Bill Nye's solar particle-powered spacecraft, LightSail, has lost communication with Earth. The spacecraft launched a week ago, but a software glitch has removed the craft's ability to send data back to Earth. So far, efforts to remotely reboot the craft's computer have failed. The only solution that scientists can think of right now is to push the manual reset button — an idea that isn't exactly realistic.
"There’s nobody in outer space to push that reset button," Bill Nye told The Planetary Society, the non-profit behind the LightSail project.
LightSail is made up of a small satellite with a 344-square-foot solar sail attached. It launched on May 20th, carrying many researchers' dreams of solar propulsion with it. . . .
