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I love how "safe mode" for a satellite is basically: "extend solar panels, turn self towards sun, don't do anything unnecessary, wait for further instructions".

• pphysch 3mo ago
  They should rebrand it as "Praise the Sun" mode. We are sorry, GOES-19 is temporarily unavailable during a planned solar worship break of indefinite length.
  • farx 3mo ago
    Initiate Sol Invictus mode
  • dabluecaboose 3mo ago
    The cool thing about geostationary orbits is that they're far enough out that they get 24/7 sun (Except around the equinoxes). We could easily fit a solar worship break in the schedule in between imaging and momentum dumps.
    • Terr_ 3mo ago
      > a solar worship break It'd be easy to optimize with some additional religions too, since from that distance pretty much all possible Earthly [0] holy sites are in the same direction. [0] I just stumbled onto a fun grammar question! Is it "earthly" (non-supernatural) or is it Earthly (proper-adjective related to the planet), or both? I submit that it's possible to have an "earthly Martian holy-site", and therefore only the capitalized version works here. :p
      • altairprime 3mo ago
        Earthian, I believe? If you adhere to the same rules as Martian, Venusian, et al. I’d me more inclined to use Earthen, capitalized, though.
      • backprop1989 3mo ago
        Terran
    • m4rtink 3mo ago
      Sure, GEO sats are almost always in full sunlight. But still, if you loose orientation, you could end up with the solar panel wings pointing in the wrong direction or overheating parts of the satellite not meant to be in full sunlight for long time.
  • bee_rider 3mo ago
    Just don’t point the thing at any maggots.
• munificent 3mo ago
  My restorative mode is also "turn self towards sun, don't do anything unnecessary".
  • erikig 3mo ago
    "Turn your face to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you." Māori Proverb