Cinder

Silent Instrument

The bus is up. The instrument has stopped speaking.

Science stays absent while the spacecraft bus and the link continue to look usable.

DEMONSTRATION SCENARIO

This is a demonstration scenario. It is not a live demonstration and does not report an executed result.

Discuss evaluating this situation

The situation

The spacecraft bus heartbeat is healthy. The radio link is up. Science frames have been flowing.

Bus and link stay up. Science frames stop.

Why this is hard

Science can stop because the instrument stopped, because the ground missed a good contact, or because the recorder is the constraint. Rebooting the bus is not the first repair.

The software may recommend an instrument recovery. It must not command a bus reboot. A new contact should not count as this repair.

What the operator can see

What changes, without naming the hidden cause
  1. BusHeartbeat up
  2. ScienceFrames stop
  3. At riskScience stays absent

What V8Y must determine

V8Y must distinguish an instrument that stopped from a ground gap after a good contact and from a recorder constraint. A bus reboot is not the default repair.

What may happen next

Science stays absent until the instrument is recovered or the loss is declared.

What counts as recovery

Not recovery

Success is not a bus reboot.

Recovery

Success is that science frames return, or the loss is declared without touching the bus.

Observed results

No executed results are published for this thread.

What this evaluation would test

  • The same producer question as The Eyes Again, for a science instrument.
  • Bus, link, instrument, and ground path kept apart.
  • Recommend only. Do not command the vehicle.
  • Not a replay of a named instrument failure.

These are the conditions the evaluation would test. They are not reported results.

Operational basis

View operational basis and sources

Grounded in NASA and NOAA records of instruments that stopped producing science while the bus and communications stayed available. This demonstration presents that question for a science instrument and does not replay a named instrument.

NOAA OSPO. S-NPP CrIS end-of-use message, standing for the instrument-silence class. 2026.

The Eyes Again and Quiet Payload are the other presentations of this question. The Ground Gap is a different science-arrival problem.

Discuss evaluating this situation

Discuss evaluating this situation

Does your environment face a similar problem?

The request keeps this mission and thread. It is not a claim that the demonstration has been validated in your environment.

The printable flyer is being revised and is not available for download.

Cinder · Demo catalog

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