Remember that Russian planet that was lead to become one of thebrightest starsin the sky ? Well , it has patently run out to process .
CalledMayak , and rise by Moscow State Mechanical Engineering University ( MAMU ) , it was launch on July 14 on a Soyuz Eruca sativa . The plan was for a prominent pyramid regulate reflecting telescope to unfurl from the bread loaf of bread - sized cubesat once in orbit .
However , the squad and Russian media outlets have account that this failed to crop . In a Emily Price Post on the websitegeektimes.ru , the project leader Alexander Shaenko said it had belike failed to deploy .
He note that some inexpert astronomers had purportedly pick out Mayak . But he says these are more probable to be other satellites reflecting the Sun than the Mayak satellite itself . It ’s intend adesign flawmay have make the problem , or the satellite may have had an outside impact when launching into orbit .
" It may well be that we have done something wrong , and perchance there were some problem with our entailment , " Shaenko told the Russian news agencyTASS .
He said that they had made some mistakes during the project , include an excessively enthusiastic PR overselling how brilliant Mayak would be . They said it would be a magnitude of -10 , which is third in brightness only to the Sun and Moon . Our own calculations suggested it would be -3 , making it the fourth undimmed after Venus .
A potential sighting of Mayak , but this is more likely to be another satellite
The team will now attend into why the reflector failed to deploy , but it wait pretty unlikely that it will be recoverable . That may be music to the ears of some astronomers , who had raise business that the brightness of Mayak could affect astronomical observance .
“ One can only hope the mission fails and the plan to plague our pristine dark sky never take shape , ” Nick Howes , an stargazer and former deputy conductor of the Kielder Observatory in Northumberland , told IFLScience last calendar month .
If it had work , the reflecting telescope would have spanned 16 square beat ( 170 satisfying foot ) . Made of Mylar and 20 times thinner than a human hair’s-breadth , it would have orb at a height of 600 kilometers ( 370 miles ) . the great unwashed on the ground could track its progress using an app .
unhappily or not , bet on your full stop of sight , this project appear to have failed . Our stars will now be one hokey star less , for better or worse .
