 Wide Field Infrared Explorer spacecraft | |
| Names | Explorer-75 WIRE SMEX-5 |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Infrared astronomy |
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 1999-011A |
| SATCATno. | 25646 |
| Website | http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/wire/ |
| Mission duration | 4 months (planned) 1 year, 4 months, 10 days (achieved)[1] |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Explorer LXXV |
| Spacecraft type | Wide-field Infrared Explorer |
| Bus | WIRE |
| Manufacturer | Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) |
| Launch mass | 250 kg (550 lb) |
| Power | 160watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 5 March 1999, 02:56UTC |
| Rocket | Pegasus XL (F26) |
| Launch site | Vandenberg Air Force Base,Stargazer |
| Contractor | Orbital Sciences Corporation |
| Entered service | Failed on orbit |
| End of mission | |
| Deactivated | 30 September 2000 |
| Last contact | 23 October 2006 |
| Decay date | 10 May 2011, 07:00 UTC |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit[2] |
| Regime | Sun-synchronous orbit |
| Perigee altitude | 470 km (290 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 540 km (340 mi) |
| Inclination | 97° |
← Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SMEX-3) RHESSI (SMEX-6) → ← Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (Explorer 74) TERRIERS (Explorer 76) → | |
Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WIRE, alsoExplorer 75 andSMEX-5) was aNASA satellite launched on 5 March 1999, on thePegasus XLlaunch vehicle intopolar orbit between 409 and 426 km (254 and 265 mi) above the surface ofEarth. WIRE was intended to be a four-monthinfrared survey of the entire sky at 21-27μm and 9-15 μm, specifically focusing onstarburst galaxies and luminousprotogalaxies.
WIRE had problems and was unable to carry out its IR survey, and was deactivated on 30 September 2000, and finally reentered and burned up in 2011.
The science team was based at theInfrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) inPasadena, California. Flight operations, integration, and testing were fromGoddard Space Flight Center inMaryland. The telescope was built bySpace Dynamics Laboratory inUtah. Premature ejection of the spacecraft aperture cover led to depletion of thesolid hydrogen shortly after launch, ending the primary science mission. The onboardstar tracker remained functional and was used for long-term precision photometric monitoring of bright stars in support of anasteroseismology program. WIRE reenteredatmosphere of Earth on 10 May 2011 (around 07:00 UTC).[3]
The Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) was a two-color, solid hydrogen-cooled, infrared imaging telescope designed to study starburst galaxies and to search for protogalaxies. The science goals of WIRE were to: 1) determine what fraction of theluminosity of theuniverse at aredshift of >0.5 is due tostarburst galaxies; 2) assess how fast and in what ways starburst galaxies evolve; and, 3) examine whether luminous protogalaxies are common at redshifts <3. In order to accomplish these goals, WIRE was to conduct a four-month survey at 12- and 25-μm over an area of between ten and several hundredsquare degrees of the sky.[4]
The WIRE telescope itself had an entrance aperture of 30 cm (12 in) and a 32 x 32arcminutesfield of view (FoV). It was of aRitchey–Chrétien telescope design with no moving parts and no reimaging optics.
Shortly after launch, while the spacecraft was still tumbling early after orbit insertion, the telescope cover came off prematurely. This resulted in the exposure of the cryogenic materials to light, warming them at a high rate causing outgassing and increasing the rate of spin of the spacecraft beyond the ability of thereaction wheels to slow it. Although ground controllers began work to decrease the excess spin of the spacecraft, they were not able to do so in time to prevent the total loss of thefrozen hydrogen used to cool the primary science instrument. Attempts to recover control of the spacecraft were successful, though as a result of the coolant loss no science data were obtainable.[4]
A design flaw in the spacecraft control electronics caused the telescope dust cover to eject prematurely in its first few hours on orbit, exposing the telescope to the Earth. In normal operations, the telescope would avoid pointing at the Earth as well as theSun because the heat load was too high for the cryogenic cooling. At this early stage in the mission, the telescope was deliberately pointed at the Earth for safety under the assumption that the dust cover was present. The influx of power into the telescope caused thesolid hydrogencryostat to boil off all of its cryogen. The cryostat was designed to non-propulsively vent small amounts of gaseous hydrogen as the instruments were cooled. However, due to the unexpected heating, the vent began expelling gas at rates orders of magnitude higher than designed. The over-active vent acted as an uncontrolled, off-axis thruster. Eventually, theattitude control system was unable to counter the thrust of the cryostat vent, and the spacecraft began to spin. By the time the hydrogen supply was exhausted, the spacecraft was spinning as fast as 60rpm. As the thrust finally abated, spacecraft engineers were able to re-establish attitude control. However, with the cryogen gone, the science instrument was no longer functional and the original science mission ended.
In order to salvage some functionality from the US$73 million spacecraft, operations were redirected after the failure of the cryogenic system to an alternate science mission using the undamaged onboard star tracker for long-term monitoring of bright stars in support of anasteroseismology program. This redirection of mission was proposed byDerek Buzasi,[5] who was not affiliated with the WIRE team, but whose research interests includedasteroseismology and detector design, and who was at the time an Assistant Research Scientist on the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph project at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. The technique of asteroseismology aims to measure very low-amplitude oscillations in nearby stars to probe their structure. While the star tracker had poor spatial resolution, having been designed primarily for a wide field of view and detection of thebrightest stars, it was above the atmosphere and thus avoided scintillation, enabling high-precisionphotometry. As a secondary experiment, one solar array also included a section with reflectors, to test aconcentrator system.[5] The WIRE asteroseismology mission was deactivated on 30 September 2000, reactivated through Bowie State University's Satellite Operations and Control Center from 2003 through 2006, then communications were finally lost on 23 October 2006. WIRE re-entered Earth's atmosphere on 10 May 2011.[6]
The original science goals of WIRE may finally be achieved by theWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) (Explorer 92) mission which was successfully launched into orbit on 14 December 2009 and began observations on 14 January 2010.
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