Double trouble: ESA's Gaia hit by micrometeoroid and solar storm
ESA's Gaia spacecraft overcame challenges from micrometeoroid impact and solar storm, leading to sensor disruptions and false star detections. Collaborative efforts and software modifications restored routine operations for improved data quality.
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ESA's Gaia spacecraft, launched in 2013 to map stars in the Milky Way, faced challenges from a micrometeoroid impact and a solar storm. The micrometeoroid damaged Gaia's protective cover, allowing stray sunlight to disrupt its sensors. Subsequently, an electronics failure in one of its sensors caused thousands of false star detections. The spacecraft, designed for six years but still operational after a decade, struggled during a period of high solar activity. Despite the issues, a collaborative effort involving ESA teams and experts led to modifications in Gaia's software, reducing false detections and restoring routine operations. The spacecraft's twin telescopes were also refocused, resulting in improved data quality. Gaia continues its mission thanks to the dedication of the teams involved in resolving the technical challenges it faced.
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5 commentsJust recently we had the news about Voyager 1 needing a remote updated to avoid some corrupted memory region, and I believe Hubble runs with only one gyroscope now, because the other ones either died or were slowly dying (while still far exceeding the original mission duration).
I can imagine the satisfaction the software engineers feel if they can eek out a few more years of mission life out of a piece of expensive hardware that too far out to service directly.
Thanks to the hard work and efficient collaboration of all the teams involved, Gaia was recently returned to routine operations.
In fact, the engineers took the opportunity of this unscheduled disturbance to refocus the optics of Gaia’s twin telescopes for the final time. As a result, Gaia is now producing some of the best quality data that it ever has.
> This object, however, struck Gaia at a very high speed and at just the wrong angle, damaging the spacecraft’s protective cover.
How do they know all this? Did they perform some simulations to find out what kind of particle could have done the observed damage?
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