The investigation into the anomaly that induced New Horizons to enter “safe mode” on July four has concluded that no components or software program fault transpired on the spacecraft. The fundamental trigger of the incident was a difficult-to-detect timing flaw in the spacecraft command sequence that transpired in the course of an procedure to put together for the shut flyby. No comparable functions are prepared for the remainder of the Pluto face.
“I’m delighted that our mission group speedily discovered the dilemma and confident the wellness of the spacecraft,” stated Jim Environmentally friendly, NASA’s Director of Planetary Science. “Now – with Pluto in our sights – we’re on the verge of returning to regular functions and heading for the gold.”
Preparations are ongoing to resume the at first prepared science functions on July seven and to perform the complete shut flyby sequence as prepared. The mission science group and principal investigator have concluded that the science observations misplaced in the course of the anomaly restoration do not impact any major aims of the mission, with a minimum impact on lesser aims. “In conditions of science, it will not adjust an A-furthermore even into an A,” stated New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Analysis Institute, Boulder.
Introducing to the problem of restoration is the spacecraft’s intense length from Earth. New Horizons is virtually three billion miles absent, exactly where radio alerts, even touring at mild pace, need to have four.five hrs to achieve house. Two-way interaction in between the spacecraft and its operators demands a 9-hour spherical vacation.