Here's how engineers plan to save the satellite sent to save NASA's Swift mission

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太空救援任务出师不利！美国Katalyst公司派去营救NASA天文台的Link卫星，自己先失控了。这颗冰箱大小的卫星在距地面200多英里处突然疯狂翻滚，三个姿态控制轮坏了俩，推进器也失灵了，一度连地面信号都连不上。通俗解读：简单说，就是NASA花了大价钱造了一个研究宇宙爆炸的太空望远镜Swift，它轨道越来越低，快坠入大气层烧毁了。于是请来专门做卫星维修的Katalyst公司，派一颗叫Link的卫星去推它一把，把它推回安全高度。结果Link自己先晕头转向，站都站不稳，这可真够戏剧性——救人的人先需要被救。实际影响：这事看着远，但跟每个人都有关系。现在太空轨道上有上万颗卫星，坏了只能沦为垃圾。如果这次救援能成功，意味着未来卫星寿命可以延长，太空垃圾也能被清理，我们用的导航、通讯服务会更稳定。想象一下，以后修卫星就像太空修车，这个技术成熟了，整个航天产业都会变天。目前工程师还在抢修，希望能把这颗“救星”拉回正轨。

One week ago, more than 200 miles above the Earth, a refrigerator-size satellite making its way toward an attempted rescue of NASA's $500 million Swift gamma-ray observatory suddenly spun out of control. It didn't look good. The spacecraft, named Link, was rotating on multiple axes, rendering it unable to maintain a reliable communications link with the ground and complicating efforts to arrest the spin. Two of the satellite's three reaction wheels, used for pointing, also stopped working. Through sporadic radio contact, engineers discovered a problem with some of the spacecraft's cold gas thrusters used for finer attitude control. The Link satellite is built, owned, and operated by Katalyst Space Technologies, a satellite servicing startup that won a $30 million contract from NASA to fly up to the Swift observatory, grab onto it, and boost its orbit before succumbing to aerodynamic drag and burning up int he atmosphere.Read full article Comments