Lurker Posted May 9, 2012 Report Share Posted May 9, 2012 From their websites : ESA declares end of mission for Envisat Just weeks after celebrating its tenth year in orbit, communication with the Envisat satellite was suddenly lost on 8 April. Following rigorous attempts to re-establish contact and the investigation of failure scenarios, the end of the mission is being declared. A team of engineers has spent the last month attempting to regain control of Envisat, investigating possible reasons for the problem. Despite continuous commands sent from a widespread network of ground stations, there has been no reaction yet from the satellite. As there were no signs of degradation before the loss of contact, the team has been collecting other information to help understand the satellite's condition. These include images from ground radar and the French Pleiades satellite. With this information, the team has gradually elaborated possible failure scenarios. One is the loss of the power regulator, blocking telemetry and telecommands. Another scenario is a short circuit, triggering a ‘safe mode' – a special mode ensuring Envisat's survival. A second anomaly may have occurred during the transition to safe mode, leaving the satellite in an intermediate and unknown condition. Although chances of recovering Envisat are extremely low, the investigation team will continue attempts to re-establish contact while considering failure scenarios for the next two months. The outstanding performance of Envisat over the last decade led many to believe that it would be active for years to come, at least until the launch of the follow-on Sentinel missions. So for people who don't know bout ENVISAT : Envisat was ESA's successor to ERS. Envisat was launched in 2002 with 10 instruments aboard and at eight tons is the largest civilian Earth observation mission. More advanced imaging radar, radar altimeter and temperature-measuring radiometer instruments extend ERS data sets. This is supplemented by new instruments including a medium-resolution spectrometer sensitive to both land features and ocean colour. Envisat also carries two atmospheric sensors monitoring trace gases. source : https://earth.esa.int Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dbu Posted May 9, 2012 Report Share Posted May 9, 2012 nice webpage man thks for share it...regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcsump Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 :cry: , is there no planned replacement for it yet ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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