What happened to the artificial satellite that reappeared after 13 years of disappearance?

Since the Industrial Revolution, mankind has been on the road of technological development, and the rapid development of science and technology has given mankind the hope to go out of the earth to explore the universe. The first human-made satellite lifted off in 1957, marking the first step toward space and opening the door to the space age. Thus, the history of human space development is only a few decades, while the development of mankind in the field of space is a leap forward.

The rapid development of human technology to explore space, naturally, can not be separated from the satellite, and ordinary people's daily life can not be separated from the satellite, without the satellite, our network can not be used, our cell phones can not talk, the daily weather forecast can not be separated from the satellite, the car out of navigation can not be separated from the satellite. Artificial satellites help human beings a lot, it monitors the changes in the atmosphere every day, real-time updates of weather conditions, advanced detection of natural disasters, etc. It can be said that the existence of artificial satellites is to make human life better so that human exhibition is faster.

Who knows how many satellites have been launched by mankind in total so far? The precise data is difficult to figure out, satellites are divided into two categories, one for civilian use and one for military use. The world's civilian satellites are generally public, while many military satellites are not public, I believe that we can understand this point. According to the European Space Agency, the total number of satellites launched by countries around the world has exceeded 6,600 so far, and there are still 3,600 satellites in space today. But most of the satellites do not work anymore, and only more than 1,000 satellites are working properly.

Of the more than 1,000 satellites in working order, more than 600 belong to the United States, which shows that the United States is still the number one space power in the world. Many people may wonder what happens to these unused satellites eventually. Only a very small percentage fall to earth and are destroyed, most continue to stay in space and turn into space junk, orbiting the earth at high speed.

Everyone knows that satellites also have a life span, once the life span is up, they will stop working and turn into space junk, so have you ever heard of a scrapped satellite working again after 13 years? I believe many people will say that it is impossible, it would be too strange if such a thing happened. But this impossible thing happened, today I will talk to my friends about a strange thing that happened this year.

In 2000, NASA launched an artificial satellite called IMAGE, which was initially designed to last only five years, and by 2005, it will stop working and turned into space junk. The satellite's lifespan was indeed as long as scientists had designed it to be, and indeed in 2005 it finally reached the end of its life, but its cessation was very strange because, unlike previous satellites, it did not finally turn into space junk until after a series of jobs that needed to be confirmed by the ground before it finally became space junk, and it did not listen to the ground at all, nor did it suddenly disappear without warning.

Although according to the design, its life span is only 5 years, in 5 years in such a way suddenly disappeared, still let scientists feel very strange, for this reason also carried out a long search, but ultimately did not find this disappeared satellite, people have long forgotten it, and speculation that it may have long been part of the space junk.

But in January of this year, an unexpected event suddenly occurred, the Canadian astronomy enthusiast Scott Tiley in astronomical observation, accidentally received a signal, through analysis found that this signal from the IMAGE satellite, it has disappeared for 13 years, what is going on? Then NASA learned about this and made further confirmation for this purpose, and it turned out that this artificial satellite which disappeared for 13 years survived again.

NASA scientists know that this satellite is alive again, happy when also feel very confused and frustrated, but this is not hit them in the face, the original design when the life of the satellite is only 5 years, to 5 years, it suddenly disappeared again, and now it is alive again, what is the situation, this satellite has experienced what?

Today, scientists can completely capture the signal from the IMAGE satellite and manipulate it, which is an impossible thing. I don't know if this artificial satellite will ever come back again, or if it survives at all and continues to be used for many years, and if it does, then its mysteries will be even more mysterious.

How did this thing get here? Some scientists are also confused by this. Some scientists believe that the signal will not be interrupted in 2005 due to a malfunction and it will be restored after 13 years. Such an explanation, however, is unconvincing, and other researchers would not have thought that a satellite could repair itself, which is so bizarre in any way.

More importantly, it is an end-of-life satellite, its life span is expired, even if it did not suddenly disappear in 2005, it will stop working and turn into space junk, even if the signal was interrupted due to the initial malfunction and now it is back, its life span will be too short to live a few more years. Scientists also understand this, if it can continue to work for more than a few years in the future, I believe scientists will send a spacecraft to see what happened to this satellite.

Although scientists can not yet make a reasonable explanation for this, there are brainy netizens who have raised a possibility: whether there will be aliens to fix it. Such an explanation, although absurd, is not completely impossible and, if it can be continued in the coming years, it is even more likely, when scientists may also suspect this possibility.

Well, the satellite is already in the Earth's orbit, want so sending astronauts to check is also possible, now scientists just found it can work, perhaps still waiting for the follow-up performance, if the work for some time and then stops to check, it may be a good accident, if next year it can continue to work for more than a year, then the problem will be more complicated, I believe that then scientists will also pay great attention Then send astronauts to check and see what is going on.