The European Space Agency faced unexpected challenges when attempting to power down its Gaia spacecraft, which has mapped over a billion stars. Gaia's resilience, designed for harsh conditions, made decommissioning complex. Operators needed a thorough strategy to disable redundant systems to prevent future activation. Launched in 2013, Gaia has completed its mission and recently maneuvered into a stable retirement orbit around the Sun. The team skillfully deactivated systems and corrupted its software to ensure complete shutdown, marking a significant transition for the spacecraft after over a decade of service.
"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."
"Gaia was designed to withstand failures such as radiation storms, micrometeorite impacts or a loss of communication with Earth..."
"The team had to design a decommissioning strategy that involved systematically picking apart and disabling the layers of redundancy..."
Collection
[
|
...
]