Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Apr 1991
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991a%26a...244l..17p&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 244, no. 1, April 1991, p. L17-L20.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
6
Giotto Mission, Halley'S Comet, Meteoritic Damage, Radio Communication, Spacecraft Communication, Angular Momentum, Electric Discharges, Nutation, Radio Astronomy, Telemetry
Scientific paper
It is generally believed that a very large dust particle with mass greater than 100 mg hit the GIOTTO spacecraft 7.6 sec before encounter, induced the switchover from the primary X-band amplifier (TWT) the redundant unit, generated the observable post-encounter nutation of about 1 deg and was responsible for the 22 sec telemetry loss during the phase of closest approach to Comet Halley. Using the data of the GIOTTO Radio-Science Experiment (GRE), it is shown that the signal loss was caused by an off-pointing of the antenna dish. The drop in signal level, however, is not consistent with the spacecraft having a nutation of 1 deg at this time. It is concluded that the off-pointing of the antenna dish is most likely due to an error in the High Gain Antenna (HGA) Design Control System resulting from an electrical discharge at t(0) - 8 sec and that the large nutation was generated during the telemetry blackout by the impacts of several large dust particles in the interval from 2 sec before to 18 sec after encounter.
Bird Michael K.
Paetzold Martin
Volland Hans
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