NASA races to save Swift telescope from falling back to Earth with daring rescue mission
NASA races to save the Swift telescope from falling back to
Earth with a daring rescue mission
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission.
The planned launch of
a robotic lifesaver kicks off the $30 million salvage operation as soon as this
week. Katalyst Space Technologies, a start-up, was hired by NASA to move the
Swift Observatory into a higher orbit so that it can continue looking for some
of the biggest explosions in the universe. Swift will be pursued by a
Katalyst-built three-armed spacecraft once it launches from an atoll in the
Pacific's Marshall Islands on a Pegasus rocket launched by an airplane. As
early as Tuesday, liftoff could occur. Scanning the cosmos since its launch in
2004, Swift has been sinking faster and faster because of recent intense solar
activity. It needs to get to a higher,
more stable orbit as soon as possible to survive.
NASA’s Hubble Space
Telescope — also at risk — could be next.
Like Swift, Hubble is
losing altitude as the sun erupts with one flare after another. Ghonhee Lee, CEO of Katalyst Space, stated
that his company's currently under development next-generation robot could, in
a few years, defeat the much larger Hubble. Only China has attempted a mission
like the upcoming one, successfully boosting a satellite into a higher
graveyard orbit four years ago.
“This is the first
American space robot to go up and do anything like this,” Lee told The
Associated Press. All of NASA's large
senior observatories could benefit from this kind of service. So what we’re
proving with this mission is this is a new play in the playbook that’s
available.”
It will take
Katalyst’s autonomous spacecraft, named Link, about a month to rendezvous with
Swift and catch it, and another couple months to raise its orbit from the
current 224 miles (360 kilometers) to the desired 373 miles (600 kilometers).
For the rescue to
work, the 1.6-ton (1.4-metric-ton) gamma ray observatory must be above 185
miles (300 kilometers). It’s expected to reach that point of no return in
October, according to the latest estimates.
Roughly the size of a
small kitchen refrigerator with a 40-foot (12-meter) solar wingspan, Link
sports three arms with a reach of just over 3 feet (1 meter). Each arm has two finger-like pinching
grippers that resemble the hands of a Lego mini figure.
If all goes well,
Swift could be back in business by September, according to Lee.
Worth hundreds of
millions of dollars, Swift was never designed to be repaired, let alone
retrieved by hands — human or otherwise.
That’s what makes this so challenging, according to company officials,
who stress there is no guarantee it will work.
NASA made only two
requests when it signed a contract with Katalyst in September: It must be done
quickly, but please don't make things worse. Nine months later, the company is
ready to rumble.
“I have to be
honest. No one thought it was going to
be possible. No one thought we would get
as far as we’ve already gotten today,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA’s
astrophysics director.
By shutting down all
of Swift's scientific instruments to slow its descent, NASA has given Swift a
little extra time. In February, observations were stopped. NASA’s science
mission chief Nicky Fox said it’s worth the effort.
“If we let Swift
reenter, we would lose that telescope.
She stated, "We would lose a lot of capability." “We don’t
currently have the budget to build another one to replace that.”
Swift is unique,
despite the fact that nothing can be saved in space, Domagal-Goldman stated.
Swift, as its name suggests, is built to quickly pivot in order to record
late-breaking astronomical events like gamma ray bursts and exploding stars.
With more discoveries expected by the Webb Space Telescope and soon-to-launch
Roman Space Telescope, Swift, if saved, would be busier than ever as “NASA’s
first responder.”
Katalyst sees Swift
as the jumping-off point for a new repair business in space. The company’s next-generation robotic
rescuer, scheduled to fly next year, will tackle satellites as high as 22,300
miles (35,800 kilometers) up. Lee
envisions hundreds of robots in orbit one day, not only fixing and hoisting
satellites but also refueling them and building solar farms, data centers and
other platforms.
Thirty-six-year-old
Hubble, which received repeat servicing by spacewalking astronauts during the
shuttle era, could follow in 2028 with a life-extending Katalyst boost.
Fox declared,
"It is a national treasure." “People love Hubble.”
This story corrects
the spacecraft name to Link.
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