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

hi

[Anonymous Coward]

first post!

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

[timeOday]

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

Uh Oh

[MrTripps]

Global warming is wider spread then previously thought.