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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)."
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
(no i did not RTFA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enfn9PL5htQ
The primary tank is still running, and now will do a
It appears, to the uninformed such as myself, that this satellite was meant to have a life of about 2 years. The good news is that it accomplished its primary mission. The bad news is that the NASA boys either didn't plan accordingly to cool it properly for its second run, or it was a hopeful objective.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
Plus, you know, it's been rather hot outside. Waaayyyy outside.
I don't understand your numbers. I talk in Celsius.
I talk in English myself.
NASA is US-based, Slashdot is US-based, and the US uses Fahrenheit as the common measure of temperature. As for Kelvin, it's very easy for the rest of us to convert it to Celsius.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
I talk in English myself.
The entire British Commonwealth uses Celsius.
Karma fed to this user will be promptly burnt. Be warned; be wary.
Laymen don't understand thermodynamics at any temperature. It's not about temperature, it's about pretending there's a problem and engaging people's antagonistic streak towards government, which they also don't understand at any temperature.
But NASA is a scientific entity. We use SI units. Fahrenheit is, as you put it, just a common measure of temperature.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
I'll grasp who I like, thank you very much.
"...And who wants to make buttprints in the sands of time?" ~Bob Moawad
The entire British Commonwealth uses Celsius.
Language wise, English equals British about as much as Spanish equals Spain.
In other words, lots of countries were subjugated many hundreds of years ago by the two empires. English is simply a footprint from that period of time, as is Spanish. Since most of the countries are now separate entities and disparate, logic would dictate that the ousted countries' activities would hold no bearing on said countries' activities.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
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.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
Astronomers use a hodge-podge of units in different systems. Cgs units are common, but for the really fun things we tend to use units like solar masses, parsecs, magnitudes, and foes (although that one never really caught on).
Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
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?
So if your server is in Nashville, all text should be in a southern accent, rest of the country be damned?
Of course not, but I would logically expect the site's text to be in English.
If a US-based organization's data is released by way of a US-based website (Network World) to what I assume is mostly a US audience I'm not going to be surprised they used Fahrenheit. Celsius would have been nice for the rest of us but it's not hard to convert.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
It's heating up due to absorbing solar radiation and the operation of the electronics on board. Space is cold, but that doesn't help our poor telescope because there's nothing for its heat to be transmitted to. It's not like setting a hot mug of coffee outside on a cold winter day. There, conduction and convection are doing most of the work. Conduction, by the way, is why the sun hitting one side of the scope results in the entire telescope heating up.
In space the only effective way to lose heat is via radiation. The amount of blackbody radiation emitted is proportional to temperature, and the equilibrium point where the telescope is losing as much heat as it is gaining is well above 12K.
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