MANY students struggle to get out of bed before midday, so launching a €100,000 satellite was a major achievement. Unfortunately, Europe’s student-built SSETI Express spacecraft began to lose power just hours after entering orbit, and the mission is now in jeopardy.
“Europe’s student-built spacecraft began to lose power after entering orbit”
The spacecraft was launched on 27 October. But as mission controllers monitored the satellite, they noticed the voltage on the probe’s batteries drop.
“We’re having some problems charging the batteries from the solar panels,” explains Neil Melville, project manager for SSETI Express at the European Space Agency’s base in Noordwijk in the Netherlands. So around 13 hours after launch the…
