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)."

Comments

It's warming up--pretty much on schedule

[PeterM from Berkeley]

If you read the article it says that the solid hydrogen was expected to disappear about 10 months after launch, and it was launched in Dec 2009. Now it's 8/10.

What's so remarkable about something being used up that was designed to be used up?

Nothing to see here, move along!

--PM

Re:It's warming up--pretty much on schedule

[Demonantis]

Not to mention

NASA said WISE completed its primary mission, a full scan of the entire sky in infrared light, on July 17, 2010.

Sounds like a non-issue there.

Re:So that's like...

[esocid]

But NASA is a scientific entity. We use SI units. Fahrenheit is, as you put it, just a common measure of temperature.