Doesn't sound good for Quikscat, and no new mission on the horizon, since we are giving up on space exploration. Maybe the Chinese can fly one, and we will buy the data? - HLG
QuikScat satellite suffers a malfunction
Published: Nov. 24, 2009 at 3:39 PM
Aging U.S. weather satellite faltering
PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 24 (UPI) -- NASA says its QuikScat satellite has suffered a malfunction and now scientists are assessing options for future operations of the 10-year-old mission.
The space agency said a mechanism that spins the scatterometer antenna has been failing during recent months. That spinning antenna had been providing near-real-time ocean wind speed and direction data over 90 percent of the global ocean every day.
The degradation of QuikScat's rotating antenna was expected, NASA said, since the spin mechanism was designed to last about 5 years. The antenna finally stopped spinning early Monday.
NASA officials said managers will review contingency plans … for restarting the antenna and also assess options for using the mission in its present degraded state to advance Earth system science in the event the antenna cannot be restarted.
The 10-year-old QuikScat satellite, designed for a two-year mission, has achieved and far surpassed its science objectives, NASA said. QuikScat has been used by the world's meteorological agencies to improve weather forecasts and identify the location, size and strength of hurricanes and other storms.
More information on QuikScat is available at http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/quikscat/index.cfm.
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