In high-stakes, high-profile space exploration, success can raise the profile of countries and companies. and lead to important scientific breakthroughs.. But when things go wrong, there's also nowhere to hide. By Ameet 5. The Euclid Spacecraft space doodles The European Space Agency spent over a decade working on its Euclid mission before it met the skies in July. 2023 The Euclid spacecraft is a space telescope that is capable of making fine measurements of the shapes of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away. Euclid searches for the gravitational influence of dark matter and dark energy on the shapes of galaxies and of space itself. However, while commissioning Euclid’s instruments, the ESA ran into a problem. The Fine Guidance Sensor - designed to hold Euclid’s Visible Instrument on target when viewing a star field - wasn’t working properly. This caused the instrument to wobble while recording an image. As a result of this, an image taken in October looked like one of a star field with a bright, looping, lasso-like trail. Also, the camera was moving and the sparkler was a sun. Fortunately, no stars or telescopes were harmed during this and a software update fixed the problem. 4. NASA unable to open the OSIRIS-REX asteroid sample container Imagine spending 1.16 billion dollars on a bottle of Coke and then not being able to open the cap. It’s an unbelievable scenario, but it is the best way to describe the frustration of NASA’s science team. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REX) was launched in 2016 to take a sample from an asteroid near Earth called Bennu and bring it back to the Earth. This was a highly complex mission that was somehow pulled off with extremely flawless precision. It entered the Earth’s atmosphere again on September 24th, 2023 and landed in the Utah desert. Unfortunately, once the sample was placed in the Johnson Space Center, they had a massive problem.. 2 of the 35 fasteners sealing the capsule couldn't be removed. *Update: the asteroid was finally opened by the team in January of this year after four months of embarrassment and frustration. 3. Two astronauts lose a tool bag in space Have you ever had a time when you were fixing a machine, put down the screwdriver, and then couldn’t find the screwdriver? Well, NASA astronauts didn’t just lose a screwdriver, they just lost a full tool bag. In space. On November 1, 2023, NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara spent more than six hours on a spacewalk to fix the exterior of the International Space Station. After that, NASA posted an update that said, “During the activity, one tool bag was inadvertently lost.” Now, the tool bag is one of the 36,000 pieces of space debris that orbit the Earth at lightning speeds of 17,000 miles per hour. 2. Russia's moon dreams dashed Russia’s Roscosmos launched Luna-25 on August 10 2023 which was hoped to soft land near the lunar South Pole, but failed and crash landed near it. It was also hoped that it would reach the moon just a few days before India’s Chandrayaan-3 did. This was supposed to give Russia pride after the Ukraine war, but after the Luna-25 crash landed, this was further dented. India's successes hardly helped.... 1. Space X's Starship explodes again On November 18, 2023, SpaceX made a second attempt of their uncrewed test flight of Starship and the Super Heavy Booster. Shortly after its launch, the Super Heavy Booster ended in a massive explosion over the skies of Texas. The investigation suggested that SpaceX thinks that the Starship exploded thanks to a self-destruct mechanism in the flight’s termination system, which gets triggered if the rocket steers off course. This is not an ideal second attempt for the world’s largest and most powerful rocket; which Elon Musk is supposedly going to use to take humans to Mars. Works Cited Beard, Stephen. “Where Did I Put That? Astronauts Who Lost a Tool Bag Can’t Get It Back Because It’s in Orbit.” USA TODAY, 2 Dec. 2023, www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2023/12/02/astronaut-lost-tool-bag/71719486007/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2024. Kelvey, Jon. “The 8 Most Epic Space Fails of 2023.” Inverse, 25 Dec. 2023, www.inverse.com/science/best-epic-space-fails-of-2023. Accessed 29 Feb. 2024. Leapublished, Robert. “ESA Scientists Finally Resolve Glitch That Caused Euclid Spacecraft to “Doodle” through Space.” Livescience.com, 12 Oct. 2023, www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/dark-matter/esa-scientists-finally-resolve-glitch-that-caused-euclid-spacecraft-to-doodle-through-space. Accessed 29 Feb. 2024. NASASpaceNews. “How NASA Overcame the Challenge of Opening the Asteroid Sample.” Www.youtube.com, 20 Jan. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnhSs55fik4. Accessed 24 Mar. 2024. NDTV. “Russia’s Luna-25 Probe Left 10-Metre Wide Crater on Moon after Crash: NASA.” NDTV.com, 1 Sept. 2023, www.ndtv.com/world-news/russias-luna-25-probe-left-10-metre-wide-crater-on-moon-after-crash-nasa-4347946. Accessed 15 Mar. 2024. News, A. B. C. “What to Know about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission.” ABC News, 24 Sept. 2023, abcnews.go.com/US/nasas-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-return-mission/story?id=103408191. Accessed 29 Feb. 2024. Pattison, Chris. “What’s Wrong with Euclid Space Telescope?!” Www.youtube.com, 1 Nov. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFjZP4F0IKM. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024. Snider, Mike. “Test Flight for SpaceX’s Massive Starship Rocket Reaches Space, Explodes Again.” USA TODAY, 18 Nov. 2023, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/11/18/spacex-rocket-test-flight/71634256007/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2024. The Federal. “Astronauts Lose $100,000 Tool Bag in Space | the Federal.” Www.youtube.com, 13 Nov. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAFSaLcnHE. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024. The Indian Express. “Luna 25 Crash: Russia’s Moon Mission Ends in Failure as Luna-25 Spacecraft Crashes on Lunar Surface.” Www.youtube.com, 20 Aug. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v7euhZ83Ew. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024. The Launch Pad. “BREAKING! Russia Luna-25 Has Crashed into the Moon.” Www.youtube.com, 20 Aug. 2023, m.youtube.com/watch?v=MLJJECq6MrM. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024. The Wall Street Journal. “Watch: SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends in Explosion on Second Try | WSJ.” Www.youtube.com, 18 Nov. 2023, m.youtube.com/watch?v=KCH0NH1tt5k. Accessed 15 Mar. 2024.
1 Comment
Amey Desai
30/3/2024 11:30:46
Very nice article 👌👌
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