The first private space of the world built to visit an asteroid is slowly falling into space and perspective is serious.
The spacecraft, called Odin, was launched on a Spacex rocket on Wednesday (February 26) in a mission of flying through the small 2022 OB5 asteroid for Astroforge, a company that aims to finally extract nearby space rock. But just a few hours after takeoff, Astroforge hit the probe. The last contact was 20 hours after the launch.
“I think we all know that hope is fading as we continue the mission,” said Astroforge’s founder Matt Gialich In a video update in x Early Saturday (March 1). “So we are going to keep our heads up. We will continue trying during the weekend and we will see how far we get.”
At the time of the Gialich update on Saturday morning, the Odin spacecraft exceeded 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) of the earth and largely following its planned career. On Friday, Astroforge said that the solar panels of the spacecraft were generating energy, with follow -up data that show it in their expected position. But the probe has not sent full telemetry in its state.
Gialich said Astroforge experienced challenges with land stations designed to keep the communication lines open with Odin after launch.
“And I think our first land stations really harm us to solve any potential problem we had,” he said.
The 265 -pound odin (120 kilograms) was only designed to last 2.5 hours on its internal battery, but Astroforge received its last contact from the probe 20 hours after takeoff, which increases the confidence that the spacecraft is fed.
Odin is falling very slowly, since it flies through space, added Gialich, confirming a theory based on spacecraft observations.
“And when I say fall, this is a very, very low fall,” said Gialich. “But in summary, we don’t know why and that will be the problem in the future.”
The Astroforge Mission team is working during the weekend in recovery efforts, but the options can be limited.
“We have a plan during the weekend, and there is still the possibility that we can recover the vehicle,” Gialich said. “We believe we have some theories about what is happening, and if one of them is true, there is still a recovery route.”
Gialich said Astroforge will share a more detailed update on its website this weekend, followed by an in -depth analysis of anomaly next week.
Gialich founded Astroforge with the aim of extracting the vast resources from asteroids for use in land and space. The Odin mission is an exploration effort to fly through the 2022 OB5 asteroid to record images and data that would prepare the stage for a landing of the next Astroforge mission, called Vestri.
The company built Odin in just 10 months, said Gialich. It was launched as a Piggyback payload along with Athena Moon Lander of the company intuitive machines, the NASA lunar lunar lunar orbiter (which is also suffering problems after launch) and a small demonstrator of orbital tugs built by epic aerospace.
Gialich emphasized that Astroforge is committed to that Vestri asteroid landing mission despite the challenges that face his Odin research.
“We probably have the best group of investors in the world. Many of them have doubled in this company,” Gialich said. “Then, regardless of Odin’s result, regardless of whether we ever talk to him or do not, we are going to shoot these findings on the next mission.
“And we will see you here in approximately one year when we take another stab.”
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