NASA scrambles to ‘reboot’ New Horizons space probe just days from Pluto encounter

NASA says the New Horizons deep space probe will be fully functional in time for its historic rendezvous with Pluto, despite losing contact with the craft over the weekend.

JUST days out from its historic rendezvous at the edge of the solar system, NASA temporarily lost contact with the New Horizons probe. The problem? Time.

The space probe — cannoning towards its fly-past with Pluto on July 14 — suddenly went silent on Saturday.

Contact was lost for one hour and 21 minutes.

An on-board backup computer eventually detected something wasn’t right and has since signalled NASA’s Deep Space Network and begun transmitting probe telemetry to help diagnose the problem.

After almost a day of tension, mission controllers tracked the problem to “a hard-to-detect timing flaw in the spacecraft command sequence ...”

.@NASANewHorizons team responds to spacecraft anomaly. Details: http://t.co/FN6yJ1dZ6F #PlutoFlyby pic.twitter.com/Hb6apJOZRa

— NASA (@NASA) July 5, 2015

“I’m pleased that our mission team quickly identified the problem and assured the health of the spacecraft,” said Jim Green, NASA’s Director of Planetary Science. “Now – with Pluto in our sights – we’re on the verge of returning to normal operations and going for the gold.”

The temporary loss of contact with the $700 million probe sent a jolt through the astronomical community.

“After nine years (and billions of kilometres of travel) to be suffering a failure just days out from the unique fly-by of Pluto is grating some nerves to say the least,” Swinburne University astrophysicist Dr Alan Duffy said.

Monash University astrophysicist Michael Brown said he was also anxiously watching for updates: “These things do happen to spacecraft every now and then. Sometimes from radiation hits scrambling the ones and zeros in a spacecraft’s computer, although its also possible some sequence of commands (not used previously in the mission) resulted in the safe mode being triggered.”

Pluto and Charon imaged between June 23-29, 2015 by NASA’s New Horizons’ spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.

WE HAVE A PROBLEM

The New Horizons ground control team earlier this morning issued a statement saying the probe appears to be healthy,.

“The team is now working to return New Horizons to its original flight plan,” a NASA statement reads.

Mission controlliers are relieved no hardware or software fault occurred on the spacecraft, enabling them to begin to restart scientific instruments recording the close encounter.

All scheduled science operations are expected to recommence tomorrow.

“In terms of science, it won’t change an A-plus even into an A,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder.

We're going to Pluto! We just don't totally know where it is...not as bad as it sounds. @NASANewHorizons #PlutoFlyby https://t.co/U9vEe8H2GF

— NASA (@NASA) July 3, 2015

JUST ONE SHOT

The New Horizon’s probe is due to make its fleeting visit to Pluto — flashing past at just 13,000km above the dwarf planet’s surface — in eight days time.

Fortunately, all the vital thruster ‘nudges’ to put the probe into a perfect orbit for its fly-past had already been completed.

It will be the first time a space probe has come close to what was for much of the past century our Solar System’s ninth — and furthest — planet.

‘Safe mode’ is not an uncommon event for delicate computer technology amid the wild, rampant and powerful cosmic rays of outer space.

Such a long trip from our 8-bit view of Pluto. So excited for the @NASANewHorizons #PlutoFlyby July 14! pic.twitter.com/FjYZkxvRFi

— NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) July 3, 2015

But each event sends a lump into the throat of mission controllers — each time fearing that this time will be the time the machine won’t ‘reboot’.

With the nine-hour round-trip communications delay imposed by New Horizon’s 4.9 billion kilometre distance from Earth, every attempt to restart the master computer will be met with a tense delay.

“Imagine the stress of trying to debug your computer if tech support only answers your email after a full workday,” Dr Duffy says.

To prevent further shutdowns during the critical Pluto pass, most of New Horizon’s fault protection software will be temporarily disabled.

FIRST PEEK

The most recent tantalising series of images of Pluto beamed back by New Horizon’s before its ‘glitch’ reveal a series of ‘blotches’ and a bright spot near the dwarf planet’s pole.

Early observations have also revealed Pluto’s five closest moons are engaged in a complex weave of orbits unlike anything seen elsewhere in the solar system.

"Red-faced #Pluto Full of Surprises" http://t.co/BV9F0px9Vi #PlutoFlyby @NewHorizons2015 pic.twitter.com/R5FfKFHF01

— Dr. Phil Metzger (@DrPhiltill) July 4, 2015

Pluto and its largest ‘moon’, Charon, are behaving something like binary planets — swinging about each other. The smaller moons are caught up in this intricate dance.

The New Horizon’s probe was launched back in 2006. After its encounter with Pluto, NASA hopes to redirect the fast-moving craft towards more distant objects in the outer solar system for further studies.

“We can’t fly back for a second look,” Dr Duffy says. “New Horizon’s is on a one-way trip to the outer reaches of the solar system and to miss this unique close up view of Pluto and its moons would be a disaster.”