Talk:Shin'en (spacecraft)

Status / Time of last signal

The article says that contact with the probe was lost shortly after launch, but later contradicts this with "The last signals were observed from 320,000 km altitude at 0:43, 22 December (JST)." The reference given for the latter statement is http://www.unisec.jp/unitec-1/en/news.html, but I don't see anywhere on that page that says a signal was received on 22 December, and I don't see how the craft could have been at 320,000 km altitude in December. It should have been somewhere near Venus. The page cited does, however, say that a signal was received from that altitude on May 21, which was shortly after launch.

Unfortunately the web page cited is not written in good English, and parts of it are impossible to understand. There seems to be some mention of continued signals until May 31, and they seem to hold out some hope of contact being resetablished, but I have no idea what it means by "The beacon was not able to be received though it kept receiving until May 31 after the second day." It doesn't make any sense.

Can anyone clear up this muddle? 86.135.26.232 (talk) 13:53, 22 December 2010 (UTC).

I'm sorry for my critical typo (May for December). The webpage's table indecates that Shinen's last beacon received at 24:43 21 May (= 0:43 22 May) JST (i.e. 15:43 21 May UTC). It was within a day after launch. It is surely "shortly". Moreover, confusing sentence followed. UNISEC expects that Shin'en flew near Venus, but not confirmed. --Gwano (talk) 15:00, 22 December 2010 (UTC)