Jakarta, CNNI Indonesia —
United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has lost contact with one the satellite called Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON). The satellite was out of contact on November 25 and has not been traced since.
“The team is currently still working to establish a connection. We are working closely with the Department of Defense’s Space Surveillance Network and have verified that the satellite remains intact,” wrote a quoted NASA official statement. Space.
The ICON satellite actually has a “command loss timer” designed to reset the satellite if it doesn’t respond to ground crews for eight days. However, the satellite has been stationary since the full reset on Monday (5/12).
ICON is a satellite that was launched in October 2019 and explores the earth’s ionosphere like never before. The ionosphere itself is a layer of the earth’s atmosphere that extends over a distance of 80-640 kilometers.
Launch Space news, the ICON satellite costs $252 million or IDR 3.9 trillion. ICON is designed to study the interaction of space weather with Earth weather in the ionosphere.
It is intended to provide a better understanding of variations in the ionosphere. One of them is a measurement showing that the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in January 2022 had an effect on the ionosphere and damaged electrical waves.
The width of the ionosphere is regularly changed in response to solar radiation. It is this change that can impact communication technology.
ICON is planned to explore the ionosphere until December 2021. It is currently still in the extension mission phase. ICON will also be part of a heliophysics review mission in 2023 to determine whether it should be extended.
However, NASA has encountered a number of problems with ICON, including the aviation system and its radio frequency communication subsystem. It is not yet known if ICON will return to Earth.
“The team is currently unable to determine the health of the satellite, and the lack of a downlink signal could be an indication of a system failure,” the NASA team said.
(leth)
