Lost in Space for 24 Hours, Asteroid Probe Is Found
After more than 24 hours without radio contact, scientists on Monday night relocated a robot spacecraft on a mission to track a giant asteroid.
NASA’s Deep Space Network located the signal belonging to the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, or NEAR. Scientists planned to send signals to the craft today, hoping to restore communications and retrieve data.
“I think we’re pretty much convinced the signal was there all along,” said Helen Worth, a spokeswoman for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., which built and manages the craft.
But even a small deviation in the position of the spacecraft could have caused scientists to lose the signal, she explained. Only after scientists regain the data from the last day will they be able to determine what happened.
Contact was lost about 2 p.m. PST Sunday as the spacecraft was accelerating to catch the asteroid Eros, about 240 million miles from Earth. About 5 p.m. PST Monday, the network located the craft’s signal again.
On Jan. 10, the spacecraft is supposed to lock into orbit around Eros. Later, it is scheduled to possibly land on its dusty surface, collect data and learn how to divert an asteroid from colliding with Earth.
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