What could cause this satellite to fail

A bad joint, corrosion, solar radiation, software fault, slipping fan belt, alien intervention, dirt/debris, insulation failure, leaves on the track.

Del

Micro-meteorites?

ethobil,

perhaps the chicom gov is using it as a spy satellite?

after all the reasons for shutdown are easily faked.

especially if the controlling party has access to all the software backdoors.

as with the rest this is pure speculation.

sfcwelch,

Yes, they could be all speculations but the true cause may not be far from these speculations.

Indeed your answer gives me a food for thought. You could be right; most commentators in my locale are suspecting foul play and politics. It's really unfortunate.

cheers,

ethobil

Because it is "Made In China".

I don't think so.

suresh sharma - IMO, that was a bit of a cheap shot.

You nailed it. Good answer.

Melamine ?

One of more parts or one or more bits are malfunctioning

I bet a hunnert bux it's got something to do with one of those electronic widgets.

Without digging through telemetry there are million different issue that could cause a problem like this. Everything from bad wiring, to faulty solar panels, to an attitude subsystem that points the panels away from the sun because of a -1 in the software where there should be a +1.

My guess would be that the satellite was built cheap because the Nigerians in charge didn't know what they were doing. They didn't ask the Chinese for the proper testing and something that should have been caught on the ground wasn't so the bird failed once on orbit.

It's indeed a typical leap service to project management.

Cheers,

ethobil

My guess is it got hacked.

"The satellite also operated on frequencies already allocated to other companies and interfered with other providers' equipment."

Cheers.

J.

Sometimes the "Low Bid" on a high dollar contract is not the way to go. If there was 21 others bidding on the contract and the Chinese were the low bid, it sounds to me like the Nigerians got what they paid for. The Russians used to have a really low cost launch vehicle, and so did the French. If the bird was up for two years it was probably not in the launch. The environment is so harsh in space perhaps one of those zeros that were shaved and saved in the bid process cost them. Without the telemetry from the last several hours or days it is only speculation as to the cause of the failure. If the Nigerians really need to know they should contract JPL, GE Astrospace, Hughes or one of the US national labs to do a root cause. I doubt that will happen. Maybe they should send that out for competitive bid also. Failures like this increase the satellite insurance for everyone.

I am sure some members of the regulating authorithy in Nigeria have access to this forum and can make something out of these ideas.

Cheers,

ethobil

Satellites launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for third countries have never failed. Also their charges were lesser than other western countries.But not lesser than China.