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

Re:Orbit

[drinkypoo]

To be honest, I don't believe you've said much of anything. We can debate about what you meant to say or implied all day long but you're just taking things further off track.

I was going to just let you have the last word but then I realized hey, how can we be further off-track? This whole comment thread is about who said what. Consequently, you are a hypocrite. HTH, HAND.