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Newest NOAA Weather Satellite Suffers Critical Malfunction (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released some bad news yesterday: the GOES-17 weather satellite that launched almost two months ago has a cooling problem that could endanger the majority of the satellite's value. GOES-17 is the second of a new generation of weather satellite to join NOAA's orbital fleet. Its predecessor is covering the U.S. East Coast, with GOES-17 meant to become "GOES-West." While providing higher-resolution images of atmospheric conditions, it also tracks fires, lightning strikes, and solar behavior. It's important that NOAA stays ahead of the loss of dying satellites by launching new satellites that ensure no gap in global coverage ever occurs.
Several weeks ago, it became clear that the most important instrument -- the Advanced Baseline Imager -- had a cooling problem. This instrument images the Earth at a number of different wavelengths, including the visible portion of the spectrum as well as infrared wavelengths that help detect clouds and water vapor content. The infrared wavelengths are currently offline. The satellite has to be actively cooled for these precision instruments to function, and the infrared wavelengths only work if the sensor stays below 60K -- that's about a cool -350F. The cooling system is only reaching that temperature 12 hours a day. The satellite can still produce visible spectrum images, as well as the solar and lightning monitoring, but it's not a glorious next-gen weather satellite without that infrared data.
Several weeks ago, it became clear that the most important instrument -- the Advanced Baseline Imager -- had a cooling problem. This instrument images the Earth at a number of different wavelengths, including the visible portion of the spectrum as well as infrared wavelengths that help detect clouds and water vapor content. The infrared wavelengths are currently offline. The satellite has to be actively cooled for these precision instruments to function, and the infrared wavelengths only work if the sensor stays below 60K -- that's about a cool -350F. The cooling system is only reaching that temperature 12 hours a day. The satellite can still produce visible spectrum images, as well as the solar and lightning monitoring, but it's not a glorious next-gen weather satellite without that infrared data.
" the infrared wavelengths only work if the sensor stays below 60K -- that's about a cool -350F"
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
But the on site support cost is going to be killer.
... with my apologies.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I just ask Google for the weather.
I am sure SpaceX can send a crew up and get it retrieved and repaired.
"That system was designed while Bush Jr. was our ruler,"
If you used Bush as your ruler, you were designing it wrong
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Repairman is a passenger and all vehicle operations using remote control.
Truman: Contingency plan?
Harry: Your backup plan. You gotta have some kind of backup plan, right?
Truman: No, we don't have a back up plan, this is, uh
Harry: And this is the best that you-that the government, the U.S. government could come up with? I mean, you're NASA for crying out loud, you put a man on the moon, you're geniuses! You're the guys that're thinking shit up! I'm sure you got a team of men sitting around somewhere right now just thinking shit up and somebody backing them up! You're telling me you don't have a backup plan,
I wondered who built the thing. Well, according to Wikipedia, the satellite was made by Lockheed Martin, with this Advanced Baseline Imager being from Harris.
If you used Bush as your ruler, you were designing it wrong
Everybody knows the proper unit of scale is a banana.
GOES-17 meant to become "GOES-West."
Gee, looks like they should have called it "GOES-South".
I'll get my coat.
-it's not a glorious next-gen weather satellite without that infrared data.
Why that wording?
Satellite can't stay cool? Has global warming extended beyond earth's atmosphere already?
Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.
It could save others from overheating, but not itself ..
(I read too many memes these days.)
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Meteorologists and climatologists will obviously consider a continuous imagery of a cloud of gold chaff much better than looking at the boring old earth.
/rolleyes
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
The satellite discovered that climate change has nothing to do with human activity and therefore has "malfunctioned".
There's no money to be made if the climate is cooling.
I await the Falcon 9 painted with the Geek Squad logo.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
So, the Skylab trick? I'm not sure that it would work, because a GEO sat has to spin on its axis relative to the sun once a day to face the Earth at all times. Then again, maybe that's why it has the problem on a daily cycle. When that particular side is facing the sun, it warms up just enough to keep that specific part from working right. Then it turns away (the shadow of the Earth is mostly irrelevant to high-orbit satellites) and gets a chance to cool off. "Temperature" in space (and on the Moon) is mostly "sunlight makes you very hot, dark makes you very cold". So maybe a sunshade over the right part of the sat could do the trick. It could probably even be stuck on with magnets.
Of course the real problem is that there really is no way to fix it. Orbital mechanics makes it a pain in the ass to get to a specific point in space, and we don't have the kind of robotic gear that would be needed to do repairs remotely once we got it there, even without the quarter second or so comms lag. With cheaper launches, it may become less of an effort to just put a new one up, but GEO adds concerns about keeping space junk under control.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }