NASA’s Kepler spacecraft from emergency mode, but what triggered it

Engineers toiled over the weekend to restore the spacecraft’s functions and are still working to understand why the space telescope went into emergency mode in the first place, the first time it has done so in its seven years orbiting the sun.

“It was the quick response and determination of the engineers throughout the weekend that led to the recovery,” Kepler and K2 mission manager Charlie Sobeck wrote in an update. “We are deeply appreciative of their efforts, and for the outpouring of support from the mission’s fans and followers from around the world.”

The Kepler team discovered the spacecraft had fallen into emergency mode after a regularly scheduled check-in Thursday. Emergency mode is fuel intensive, which means the spacecraft is spending precious reserves it needs to steer.

For now, it’s unclear what caused Kepler to enter this mode, Michele Johnson, a spokeswoman at NASA’s Ames Research Center, wrote in an email.

“That’s a question we won’t be able to answer for some time,” she said. “The priority is getting the spacecraft back to doing its job, but making sure the steps taken are safe.”

This is not the first episode in which the spacecraft has given astronomers a scare. Launched in 2009 to stare at a single patch of sky looking for transiting planets, Kepler picked out thousands of planetary candidates (1,041 of which have been confirmed), revealing a veritable menagerie of mini-Neptunes, hot Jupiters and super-Earths.

But Kepler eventually ran into technical problems: Two of its four reaction wheels failed (one in July 2012 and the other in May 2013), hobbling the spacecraft, which required at least three to point with enough precision to detect the planetary transits.

http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/nation-world-news/nasa-s-kepler-spacecraft-recovers-emergency-mode-what-triggered-it

 

Apple engineers may walk if they’re forced to decrypt iOS

APPLE ENGINEERS might end up deciding the fate of the battle between the company and the FBI over decrypting iOS.

According to the New York Times, some engineers who worked on the encryption software introduced in iOS 9 have said that they would rather quit high paying jobs that compromise the encryption they created.

The FBI is pressing Apple to unlock the phone of one of the terrorists who committed a mass shooting in San Bernadino, CA last December. The argument against says that to do so would create not just an unlock for that phone, but a master key for all iOS devices, this setting a precedent.

On this week’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, one single police force was shown to have over 170 phones that needed decrypting and so repeating that county by county, state by state would open a massive floodgate.

In addition to the objection to the precedent, Apple has already argued that the free speech of its engineers, a fundament of the US constitution would be broken by making them create a decryption routine against their will and principles.

The briefing to the courts said, “Such conscription is fundamentally offensive to Apple’s core principles and would pose a severe threat to the autonomy of Apple and its engineers,”

 

Ex-BP engineer’s trial nears end, with closing arguments

Closing arguments are set to begin Thursday in the trial of a former BP engineer facing a federal pollution charge stemming from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Robert Kaluza’s trial began last week. He faces a single charge of violating the Clean Water Act. Prosecutors say he and a fellow rig supervisor, Donald Vidrine, botched a pressure test and missed clear signs of trouble before the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig.

The April 2010 blast sent millions of gallons of oil spewing from the Gulf floor for weeks.

Kaluza and Vidrine once faced manslaughter charges in connection with the deaths of 11 workers on the rig. But federal prosecutors later backed away from those charges. Vidrine pleaded guilty to the Clean Water Act violation.

http://www.waff.com/story/31315801/ex-bp-engineers-trial-nears-end-with-closing-arguments

Why Engineers Can’t Stop Los Angeles’ Enormous Methane Leak

In early December, the Southern California Gas Company said that plugging the leak, which sprang in mid-October, would take at least three more months. Right now, the single leak accounts for a quarter of the state’s entire methane emissions, and the leak has been called the worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill in 2010.

“Our efforts to stop the flow of gas by pumping fluids directly down the well have not yet been successful, so we have shifted our focus to stopping the leak through a relief well,” Anne Silva, a spokesperson for the Southern California Gas Company, told Motherboard, adding that the company is still exploring other options to stop the leak. “The relief well process is on schedule to be completed by late February or late March.”

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-we-cant-stop-the-enormous-methane-leak-flooding-la

WHY ENGINEERS CAN’T STOP LOS ANGELES’ ENORMOUS METHANE LEAK

An enormous amount of harmful methane gas is currently erupting from an energy facility in Aliso Canyon, California, at a startling rate of 110,000 pounds per hour. The gas, which carries with it the stench of rotting eggs due to the addition of a chemical called mercaptan, has led to the evacuation 1,700 homes so far. Many residents have already filed lawsuits against the company that owns the facility, the Southern California Gas Company.

Footage taken on December 17 shows a geyser of methane gas spewing from the Earth, visible by a specialized infrared camera operated by an Earthworks ITC-certified thermographer. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) released the footage last week, calling it “one of the biggest leaks we’ve ever seen reported” and “absolutely uncontained”:

Why Engineers Can’t Stop Los Angeles’ Enormous Methane Leak