18 October 2021
NASA's Lucy mission launches, encounters problem with solar panel
... Investigator Hal Levison of the Southwest Institute in Boulder, Colorado earlier this year. Those 20 minutes while the solar panels unfurl “will determine if the rest of the 12 year mission will be a success,” Levison said. “Mars landers have...
May 2019
Active debris removal faces legal minefield
... occurred in August 2016. As the European Space Agency (ESA) reported, a tiny piece of space debris hit its solar panels, causing a slight decrease in power and a change in the satellite’s orientation and orbit. Space debris mitigation has...
15 March 2021
Engineers propose a "Lunar Ark" to preserve millions of species' DNA on the Moon
... already been proposed by Thanga and his group as a possible solution to help build the base. Along with solar panels on the lunar surface to provide electricity to the cryogenic preservation modules and an elevator shaft to transport the samples...
June 2015
Beagle 2: discovering the lost Mars lander
...design with sufficient RF signal strength, the UHF antenna was embedded in the lid and required all solar panels to deploy successfully. Beagle 2’s components on Mars. A close-up, sharpened image of Beagle 2 Lander Target produced from two co-aligned...
July 2014
In thrall to a star: understanding the Sun will help us understand our own climate and environment
...navigation networks; national reconnaissance; and monitoring of severe weather. Particle and UV radiation from solar events damage the solar panels that provide the necessary spacecraft power, shortening their operational lifetimes. Enhanced magnetic...
11 November 2016
Beagle 2 Mars probe came close to success
... called reflection analysis has shown the lander deployed at least three and possibly all four of its solar panels after touching down on the red planet. Researchers from the UK’s De Montfort and Leicester universities combined 3D software...
