Checking out Pluto: a brief panic

Nina Selipsky • Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Checking out Pluto: a brief panic</h1>
                <h2><p>Over the weekend, scientists in charge of a historic mission to Pluto had the professional scare of a lifetime. With just a week to go in the decade-long mission, they lost contact with the spacecraft, NPR reports. The scientists' immediate conclusion was that something catastrophic had happened — maybe the</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/nina-selipsky-crosscut-com/">Nina Selipsky</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Over the weekend, scientists in charge of a historic mission to Pluto had the professional scare of a lifetime. With just a week to go in the decade-long mission, they lost contact with the spacecraft, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/07/07/420769473/overloaded-computers-give-nasas-pluto-team-a-fright?ref=avalancheghost.one">NPR</a> reports. The scientists' immediate conclusion was that something catastrophic had happened — maybe the spacecraft had hit a space rock. Their worries were quelled when the spacecraft got back in touch 90 minutes later. Apparently, it had been processing photos of Pluto when scientists on Earth told it to start doing something else. The multiple commands overloaded the computers and caused them to crash. "We had too many windows open," a lead scientist said lightly. Researchers have solved the problem and begin a week of intense observations later today.</p>
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Over the weekend, scientists in charge of a historic mission to Pluto had the professional scare of a lifetime. With just a week to go in the decade-long mission, they lost contact with the spacecraft, NPR reports. The scientists' immediate conclusion was that something catastrophic had happened — maybe the spacecraft had hit a space rock. Their worries were quelled when the spacecraft got back in touch 90 minutes later. Apparently, it had been processing photos of Pluto when scientists on Earth told it to start doing something else. The multiple commands overloaded the computers and caused them to crash. "We had too many windows open," a lead scientist said lightly. Researchers have solved the problem and begin a week of intense observations later today.

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By Nina Selipsky

Nina Selipsky is an editorial intern at Crosscut. She is a senior at Lakeside School in Seattle, where she is an editor and writer for the school newspaper. Nina spent last summer working with a non-p