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NASA Universe-Watching Satellite Losing Its Cool
coondoggie writes "NASA this week said its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE satellite is heating up — not a good thing when your primary mission instrument needs to be kept cold to work. According to NASA, WISE has two coolant tanks that keep the spacecraft's normal operating temperature at 12 Kelvin (minus 438 degrees Fahrenheit). The outer, secondary tank is now depleted, causing the temperature to increase. One of WISE's infrared detectors, the longest-wavelength band most sensitive to heat, stopped producing useful data once the telescope warmed to 31 Kelvin (minus 404 degrees Fahrenheit)."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enfn9PL5htQ
PR Dept: We haven't said anything for a while. What's new?
Scientist: Nothing happening really - we're not even getting much from WISE now
PR Dept: What? No WISE?
Scientist: Exactly, it's coming to the planned end of usefulness and heating up
PR Dept: [hitting speeddial] Is that the New York Times? One of our satellites is about to explode...
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Frankly, this whole discussion is moot. -404F isn't any more or less informative to most people than -242C. They're both "really really fucking cold".
The only useful unit for temperatures that low is K.
It seems the only thing missing here is u. FCK!
-404F = Heat not found?
Some people have just got to have their government incompetence stories even when the government is being unbelievably competent.
The government is so incompetent, they can't even fail right!
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