- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. AP) -- The ion engine on NASA's Deep Space 1 probe mysteriously
quit within minutes of being turned on this week, and ground controllers
were trying to figure out what went wrong.
-
- The ion-propulsion engine ran for 4 1/2
minutes Tuesday before turning off, said John Watson, a spokesman for the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Ground controllers tried
several times without success to restart the engine.
-
- It was the first time since Deep Space
1's launch 2 1/2 weeks ago that controllers turned on the ion engine, the
most intriguing of 12 "Star Trek"-style technologies being tested
on the $152 million mission.
-
- The engine must work in order for Deep
Space 1 to rendezvous with asteroid 1992 KD next July.
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- Deep Space 1 is the first deep-space
probe to rely on a solar-powered ion engine for primary propulsion. The
spacecraft was nearly 2 million miles from Earth on Wednesday, thanks to
the kick of the conventional rocket used to launch it on Oct. 24.
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- Watson said similar shutdowns have been
observed during ground tests and on communication satellites equipped with
ion engines.
-
- "They have lots of options they're
investigating" to get the Deep Space 1 engine running, he said Wednesday.
-
- Ions are electrically charged particles.
A high-speed stream of xenon ions is supposed to provide a gentle yet constant
acceleration for Deep Space 1.
-
- Ion engines are seen as preferable for
future spacecraft because they require only one-tenth the fuel of conventional
chemical engines and can therefore use smaller and cheaper rockets for
launch.
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