Spacecraft NASA TESS Booted into safe mode twice in early April. The cause of the first malfunction still remains a mystery, while the second problem is probably related to the orientation system being activated shortly after exiting safe mode after the first malfunction. TESS The work could not be continued successfully.

apparatus NASA TESS It searches for planets outside the solar system by analyzing changes in the brightness of stars as the planets pass in front of them.

May 3 TESS It exited safe mode, which was activated on April 23. The reason for switching to this mode (stopping work) was the increased driving force in the flywheels responsible for steering the device. This happened just 5 days after the sixth anniversary of the device’s launch on April 18, 2018.

This is the second shutdown TESS for the last month. The systems were shut down on April 8, then work resumed on April 17. However, on April 23, there was another transition to safe mode. As reported on the NASA website, this was due to an unsuccessful attempt to restore pressure in the system responsible for transferring momentum from the flywheels after the initial incident.

The TESS team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology depressurized this system, allowing the device to function fully again. However, the main reason for the safe mode transition that occurred on April 8 remains unclear and is being investigated by experts.

Despite the recent technical problems, TESS continues to work actively. The satellite’s main mission was completed in July 2020 and its first extended mission in September 2022, with TESS currently operating as part of the second extension of the mission. One of the most recent achievements was the discovery of the first “rogue planet”, an exoplanet wandering in interstellar space outside the orbit of any star.

NASA recently called on the scientific community to prioritize TESS missions for the upcoming third and fourth extended mission periods, as the spacecraft continues to actively search for and discover new exoplanets despite existing problems. Its possibilities are far from exhausted, and there are still many surprising discoveries that will expand our knowledge of worlds beyond the solar system.