The European Space Agency's Gaia satellite, after a decade of mapping the Milky Way, is entering retirement. Launched in December 2013, its robust design included multiple redundancies to handle potential issues like radiation storms and micrometeorite strikes. However, as it reaches the end of its mission, the team is systematically disabling these systems to ensure Gaia cannot reactivate. The process includes overwriting its hard drive with names and messages from the team, marking a bittersweet farewell for those who worked on the project, especially as they destroy its operational software.
Switching off a spacecraft at the end of its mission sounds like a simple enough job, but spacecraft really don't want to be switched off.
We had to design a decommissioning strategy that involved systematically picking apart and disabling the layers of redundancy that have safeguarded Gaia for so long.
Today, I was in charge of corrupting Gaia's processor modules to make sure that the onboard software will never restart again once we have switched off the spacecraft.
I have mixed feelings between the excitement for these important end-of-life operations and the sadness of saying goodbye to a spacecraft I have worked on for more than five years.
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