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Yesterday morning the team began sending commands toward the spacecraft's
expected location through NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), looking to trigger a
transmission from CONTOUR's communications system. Operators at the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) employed the largest DSN
antennas - 34 and 70 meters across - supplemented by sophisticated radio-science
equipment able to pick up low-frequency signals. Split into shifts, the 12-hour
send-and-listen session ended at 12:10 a.m. EST on 18 December, with no signal from the
spacecraft.
The team will try one more time to reach CONTOUR today, during a 4-hour
session starting at 8 a.m. EST. CONTOUR Project Manager Edward Reynolds, of
APL, says the chances of obtaining a signal remain remote. "If we don't get a
signal this time, our recommendation to NASA will be that we not try again," he
says.
CONTOUR hasn't been heard from since firing its solid rocket motor on Aug. 15,
during a maneuver to boost the spacecraft from a parking orbit around Earth.
Ground-telescope pictures taken shortly after the rocket burn indicated CONTOUR
had broken up into at least three pieces. The team is focusing on the largest
section - thought to be the bulk of the spacecraft - 42.5 million miles from
Earth and speeding away at more than 23,000 miles per hour.
This week marks the best opportunity to reach the spacecraft, should it even be
in condition to receive and process commands. If CONTOUR is in a flight
attitude similar to what it was when it fired its solid rocket motor, the
center of its most robust antenna - the multidirectional pancake beam - will
be pointed at Earth.
More info: CONTOUR
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