A potential hardware failure on FORMOSAT-2 might cause the nation to lose its first locally developed Earth observation satellite, the National Space Organization (NSPO) said yesterday.
Two of the satellite’s reaction wheels, which are used to rotate and position it, are malfunctioning, so it cannot properly conduct observation or take pictures, NSPO Director Chang Guey-shin (張桂祥) said.
The satellite had made do with three reaction wheels since it lost one in 2013, and the NSPO received abnormal signals from the FORMOSAT-2 on Tuesday last week, which indicated that another reaction wheel had malfunctioned, Chang said.
“At least three properly functioning reaction wheels are needed to control the satellite. The possibility of repair is low if the fault was caused by hardware failure. There would be a better chance of being able to fix the malfunction if it was the electronic interface that went wrong. However, preliminary analysis suggested that hardware failure might be the cause,” he said.
The satellite was put in “safe mode,” and its missions were suspended pending further analysis and repair attempts.
It will take two or three weeks for experts to analyze the problems and propose solutions.
“The satellite’s condition was more stable than a few days ago. We feared that the FORMOSAT-2 might lose power because its solar panels did not point to the sun accurately. However, the problem was fixed, and we have more time to understand the reaction wheel problems,” Chang said.
“If the satellite cannot be repaired and has to be decommissioned, there would be no Taiwan-made satellite orbiting the Earth for a few months until FORMOSAT-5 is launched. The launch is expected to take place in California in autumn, but the date remains uncertain,” he said.
During the window period in which the nation might not have any functioning satellite, Taiwan would have to ask for international assistance in satellite monitoring in the event of a natural disaster, National Applied Research Laboratories’ Wang Jough-tai (王作臺) said.
FORMOSAT-2 was launched in May 2004, and it has taken 2.55 million pictures of the planet’s surface, each of which covers an area four times the size of Taiwan.
The satellite provided valuable images for scientific research, environmental monitoring, natural disaster prevention and evaluation, urban planning and other applications for the past 12 years.
However, it was designed to last only five years, so the malfunction was not unexpected, Wang said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS