Talk:Solar Maximum Mission

Designed for in-orbit repair

It had grapple fixture for in-orbit repair : 30 MB PDF p358 says "The SMM was the first spacecraft designed to be serviced and repaired in space by the shuttle crew." "The Modular Attitude Control System (MACS) module was designed to be an orbital replacement unit," - Rod57 (talk) 18:33, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

SMM rotation before capture

How fast was it rotating when the shuttle arrived ? Since ground control managed to stop the rotation after the failed attempt by the astronauts - why didnt they do it in the first place ? the article should clarify ? - Rod57 (talk) 13:09, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Why was it put in standby mode when 3 of the instruments were still usable

Seems strange ? - Rod57 (talk) 13:19, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Article could cover

• when launched : how long was it intended to operate
• how/why the orbit was chosen
• how the experiments were selected
• how the spacecraft was designed for the mission
  • Telemetry - what % allocated to coronagraph etc
  • the attitude control - details of reaction wheels ? - were there any reaction thrusters - or were the magnetors used to try to achieve a long mission not limited by fuel ? - Rod57 (talk) 14:54, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Coronagraph after repair - data gaps

[1] says "In June, 1984, the SMM coronagraph resumed operations, capturing images of the corona during the daylight portion of each orbit. Coronal observations were unavailable from 8-26 January 1986, due to the loss of memory in the on-board spacecraft computer. Furthermore, only a few coronal images were obtained between 26 January and 25 February 1986, due to special, off-pointed observations of Comet Halley.

Observations were again interrupted in December, 1986, when the coronagraph's dedicated tape recorder failed. Operation was restored in March, 1987, with the data henceforth stored on the spacecraft's single remaining tape recorder. This reconfiguration resulted in a degradation of the temporal resolution of the coronagraph (from 1.5 minutes between successive images before December, 1986, to eight minutes between images beginning in April, 1987)." - Rod57 (talk) 14:44, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Hole

Wasn't a hole repaired somewhere on this satellite? Repaired in 1984? There's a WikiCommons image available.

--82.2.5.153 (talk) 17:59, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

Jammed dish antenna?

The caption above the diagram and artist's illustration in this image (found via this page) says

Solar Max made history as the first satellite to be repaired and redeployed in orbit. The dish antenna at bottom, used to transmit via TDRS, was not deployed until after the repair. It subsequently jammed. (NASA)

The image and caption are apparently scanned from Interavia Space Directory, 1990-1991 (published 1990), p. 68. (The right illustration doesn't show up next to the left diagram in the Google Books snippet because Google Books tends to blank from snippets anything recognized as an illustration within copyrighted works. In this case it's an illustration that is in the public domain anyway, as it happens.)

Earlier, almost identically worded text

The Solar Maximum satellite made history as the first to be repaired and redeployed in orbit. The dish antenna at bottom, used to transmit via TDRS, was not deployed until after the repair.

is found in Jane's Spaceflight Directory (published 1986), p. 87.

The Wikipedia article currently does not make any mention of an antenna that failed to deploy before before the repair and jammed again at some point after the repair. Perhaps someone could add this in with some elaboration? —Undomelin (talk) 18:19, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

Addendum: Deploying the dish is also mentioned in the plans outlined in the Jan. 1, 1984 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center booklet "Repairing the Solar Max: The Solar Maximum Repair Mission" (NASA-EP-205):

While it is on the arm outside the Shuttle, mission teams at NASA-Goddard will remotely deploy the satellite's high gain antenna. This antenna will allow the satellite to send data to Earth through NASA's new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. The two extravehicular activity crewmen will watch the antenna deployment from the forward bulkhead of the cargo bay and then return inside through the airlock.

—Undomelin (talk) 21:21, 21 April 2020 (UTC)