[meteorite-list] CONTOUR Update: Six Days and Still No Signal, Third Object Found

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:19 2004
Message-ID: <200208211615.JAA14211_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.contour2002.org/news.php?id=22

CONTOUR Mission Status Report
August 21, 2002

Six Days and Still No Signal
                                
After six days, the Mission Operations team has yet to hear a signal
from the CONTOUR spacecraft.

Two objects, believed to be spacecraft segments, were detected Aug. 16,
the day after the solid rocket motor burn, and a third more distant
object has since been found. The objects are now more than 2 million
kilometers from Earth, traveling at a steady 6.1 kilometers per second
(3.8 miles per second or 13,600 miles per hour). They remain on a
trajectory predicted by early observations; although they have now
traveled so far from the Sun and Earth that more observations are
unlikely.

If the spacecraft is still capable of operating, by Thursday, Aug. 22,
it will have completed the first cycle of having each of its two
transmitters attempt to send a signal through each of three antennas.
Near continuous monitoring for CONTOUR continues through Sunday. After
that, efforts will be scaled back to once a week - a schedule that will
be maintained until early December when the spacecraft will come into a
more favorable angle for receiving a signal from Earth. Deep Space
Network coverage will extend through this weekend.

As far as contacting the spacecraft this week, Dr. Robert Farquhar,
CONTOUR mission director from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory says, "We known there's not much room for optimism through
this week. Even the second week of December, when we have our best shot,
chances are small. But it's still worth monitoring."
Received on Wed 21 Aug 2002 12:15:49 PM PDT