Newest NOAA Weather Satellite Suffers Critical Malfunction (arstechnica.com) 53
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.
Damn, that's COLD (Score:2)
" the infrared wavelengths only work if the sensor stays below 60K -- that's about a cool -350F"
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Sure it is cold but it is cold in space. The funny part in TFS is:
The cooling system is only reaching that temperature 12 hours a day.
It shouldn't be to hard to keep that temperature with no direct sunlight on the satellite like, when it is, say, in the shade of planet Earth which should be close to 12 hours a day if the satellite is close enough to Earth although not 12 consecutive hours.
Re:Damn, that's COLD (Score:5, Informative)
Busted, apparently the thing has a geostationary orbit so very little time in Earth shade, few minutes if not seconds. It would have been nice to mention the orbit in TFS but oh well...
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It might also have been nice to mention that this is one of four more or less identical satellites. The first -- GOES-16 was launched in late 2016 and has no cooling problems. The other two satellites are scheduled for future launch.
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"That system was designed while Bush Jr. was our ruler,"
If you used Bush as your ruler, you were designing it wrong
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If you used Bush as your ruler, you were designing it wrong
Everybody knows the proper unit of scale is a banana.
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Global warming ... (Score:2)
... with my apologies.
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So is global.
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It's actually solar warming.
The sun is getting warmer?
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It had better be! Or otherwise our astrophysical models are very, very wrong.
Everyone knows you can't trust models. Any kind of models. :-D
Just Google it (Score:5, Funny)
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SpaceX (Score:2)
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These satellites are in geosync orbit - 25000 miles up
SpaceX hasn't got anything that can lift a crew up that high and bring them back to earth
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All other considerations secondary. Crew expendable.
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And neither does anyone else.
An Apollo could have made it, but there haven't been any of them to be had for 40+ years.
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Use the X-37 (Score:2)
Repairman is a passenger and all vehicle operations using remote control.
Re:What's your contingency plan? (Score:2)
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 y
most important instrument had a cooling problem (Score:1)
Built by... (Score:2)
I wondered who built the thing. Well, according to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org], the satellite was made by Lockheed Martin, with this Advanced Baseline Imager being from Harris.
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It seams the pork barrel is running low again, time for an um,.... Failure, thats right a failure.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Glorious? (Score:1)
-it's not a glorious next-gen weather satellite without that infrared data.
Why that wording?
Global warming (Score:1)
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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
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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 most
Ironic (Score:2)
It could save others from overheating, but not itself ..
(I read too many memes these days.)
An Inconvenient Truth (Score:1)
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.