Reconnect with the old satellite

British scientists are promoting an ambitious project to restore the country's only satellite, which remains in orbit for nearly 40 years.

According to the BBC , when the Prospero spacecraft was launched into orbit using a Black Arrow rocket on October 28, 1971, it marked the end of an era of brief British space exploration.

Prospero is the first British satellite launched with its own device. It is also the last satellite of the country.

The British government decided to cancel the Black Arrow launcher project and Prospero spacecraft before the scheduled time, but the team in charge had "disobeyed orders" and still launched Prospero into orbit from a base desert Australia. No doubt it was still there so far. For the purpose of conducting a series of experiments to investigate the effects of the spatial environment, the satellite was successfully operated until 1973 and remained in touch with the earth until 1996.

Now a group of Mullard Space Science Laboratory experts from the University of London hope to restore contact with Prospero on the 40th anniversary of the UK's only satellite launch.'First, we had to redesign the ground from the missing information, then check the communication system to see if it was' alive' , said lead researcher Roger Duthie. , tell the BBC.

Prospero spacecraft

But no job is easy. The satellite was built in Farnborough by the space division of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, but the division was long disbanded and Prospero contact codes were lost.'Technical reports published in the 70s of last century were lost. We asked the Prospero project participants, rummaging through the dusty bins stored on the top floor where they worked in the past, and into the Farnborough library '.

Finally, Mr. Duthie's group found the codes typed on a paper at the National Archives in Kew, London. But even when there are codes, experts still have to build devices to 'talk' with Prospero, and then have to get permission from the UK's Communications Management Authority (Ofcom) to use the frequencies. Prospero's. Once the ground is completed, Mr. Duthie and colleagues must also test the technology to see if it can still contact Prospero before making a public demonstration. If the satellite is still active, some tests may still be in operation.

'It is an artifact of British engineering. We are investigating how it works , 'said Duthie. If successful, his team can call themselves the world's first space archaeologists.