|
Remote AgentHow does Remote Agent work? |
In the past, spacecraft were sometimes controlled by a combination of ground control and astronauts on board, like on Apollo 13. In cases where there are no astronauts, or the mission was longer, further, or more risky, spaceships were controlled by ground controllers at Mission Control. Both of these cases involve much communication between the spaceship and ground control through the Deep Space Network (DSN.) DSN sends and receives radio waves between Mission Control and the Spacecraft.
For most satellites currently in space, a 24-hour ground crew sends commands to the satellite every time they want it to do anything, even just keep its solar panels pointed at the Sun. This type of communication takes a long time, depending on how far from Earth the spacecraft is and makes it difficult to deal with emergency situations that could lead to the failure of the mission.. Communication through DSN is also quite costly. For very active satellites, communicating is a large drain in time and people. It may even impact the amount of time NASA uses the satellite; it takes time and money to upkeep the equipment and software, as well as radio transmitter time, to keep sending commands.
Is Remote Agent like the robots in science fiction movies?
How does NASA run space missions?
How does NASA communicate with spacecraft?
