Lost for more than 40 years, an American satellite suddenly appears and sends a signal to Earth. Who controls it?

A satellite that has been out of contact for more than 40 years suddenly sends a signal to humans. Should we answer?

It's like something out of science fiction, but it's playing out in real life.

A British astronomer has picked up a signal from space. He can't tell, so he's passing it on to a more authoritative astronomical authority.

Finally, after screening and screening, the United States found that it was from a satellite they launched more than 40 years ago.

However, the US side remembers that the satellite malfunctioned after liftoff and was eventually thrown into outer space. Why did it "die" after more than 40 years?

What, are aliens controlling it?

The corpse "satellite

In 1965 America's Lincoln Laboratory launched an experimental satellite, LES1.

After entering space, the intended circuit board did not work properly, the satellite did not enter the orbit set, and eventually Lincoln Lab had to abandon the satellite.

So it became a piece of junk in outer space.

Because LES1 is a communications satellite, it has no way to send signals to Earth without entering its intended orbit.

For more than 40 years, it has had no contact with Earth, like a runaway child.

Lincoln Lab treated it as a satellite that had failed to launch, as was common in the 1960s.

The space race began in the 1950s when the United States and the Soviet Union began working on artificial satellites.

No human had ever pulled off such a feat before, and despite the great technological prowess of the Soviet Union, it was no match for the inexperience.

So there were a lot of failures on both sides, and one failure in 1965 wasn't going to stop either side from moving forward.

In 2012, a British astronomy enthusiast started receiving signals from space as usual.

A strange signal caught his attention.

This message came from space, from the frequency of man-made objects, but the strange thing is that the signal source and all known man-made spacecraft do not match.

According to the International Space Organization, spacecraft launched by every country are required to make their orbital data publicly available, so as not to cause collisions.

If it was sent from a working spacecraft, it's possible to trace it back to the person who launched it.

Apparently, this message didn't, and since the situation was too complicated for stargazers to solve, the discoverers passed the message to the National Observatory.

Soon, astronomical organizations from several countries joined forces to find the source of the signal, eventually focusing on a defunct satellite.

It was Lincoln Laboratory 1, LES1, that had been lost for more than 40 years.

LES1 is supposedly space junk, so why would it send a signal to Earth?

The connection 40 years later

News that Lincoln Lab-1 had made contact with Earth soon spread around the world.

Netizens around the world have been discussing the issue, with many citing the contents of the Three-Body Problem, a science fiction novel, asking astronomers not to answer.

In the novel, humans answer an alien signal and reveal their position, which leads to their death.

A satellite lost for more than 40 years has become space junk, but it has made contact with the earth. Maybe it is controlled by an alien civilization.

In response to such concerns, the Lincoln Laboratory in the United States gave the opposite view.

They thought the satellite was nothing more than a faulty circuit board.

Other than that, most of its components are in good shape, especially its solar charging panels, which are likely to be working for 40 years.

In this reconnection with Earth, should be a coincidence.

Lincoln Lab speculated that LES1 was abandoned because it failed to reach its intended orbit, essentially a launch failure as a communications satellite.

Unable to contact Earth, the lab had no way to turn off all the functions on the satellite, leaving it in space with all the working switches already turned on.

It's been transmitting signals for the last 40 years, but not in the direction of Earth, so it's been out of contact with humans.

Maybe one day, LES1 was hit by another piece of space junk, and at some point, it went into orbit where it was supposed to go.

Although it was brief, it sent a signal from this orbit, and it followed its original path to Earth.

Then LES1 left orbit and went somewhere else.

This may explain why only one LES1 signal has been picked up so far, and that was by the British.

Which means the satellite wasn't exactly in its intended position, either, or the signal would have been picked up by Lincoln Lab.

All in all, Lincoln Lab says it won't answer the message.

Because it's useless to answer, LES1 is just sending a signal that Earth can accept by coincidence.