Spitzer's Journey

Spitzer_sig16-13_1024

spitzer_sig16-13 August 26th, 2016

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

13 years into its mission of discovery, NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope faces increasing challenges as it enters the Beyond phase of its mission. This diagram shows how the different phases of Spitzers mission relate to its location relative to Earth over time.

Launched into an Earth-trailing orbit, Spitzer orbits the sun similarly to Earth. Because of its slightly larger orbit, Spitzer takes more than a year to circle the sun, causing it to drift further away from the Earth over time.

Initially Spitzer, was cooled cryogenically with liquid hydrogen, allowing its instruments to reach temperatures as low as 5.5 degrees Kelvin (-450 degrees Fahrenheit). This allowed all three of its science instruments, IRAC, MIPS, and IRS, to operate at peak efficiency.

Once the cryogen was depleted on May 15, 2009, Spitzer began its so-called Warm Mission. This was possible due to Spitzers clever engineering design to enable passive cooling that still maintains a telescope temperature of 27 Kelvin (-411 Fahrenheit). While significantly warmer than its initial state, it still enables its IRAC instrument to operate two channels at full efficiency.

As Spitzers distance from the Earth continues to increase along its orbit, it operates outside the design limits set for it at the beginning of its mission. This new phase has been dubbed Beyond as Spitzer faces new engineering challenges and risks. Chief among them are the increasing tilt required to point its primary antenna at Earth for communications, resulting in reduced power to the solar panels and additional stress to the batteries.

Spitzer's Beyond mission phase will last until the commissioning phase of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, currently planned to launch in October 2018.

Provider: Spitzer Space Telescope

Image Source: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/6227-sig16-13-Spitzer-s-Journey

Curator: Spitzer Space Telescope, Pasadena, CA, USA

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Image Details

Image Type
Artwork
Object Name
Spitzer Space Telescope
Subject - Solar System
Technology > Observatory > Telescope
Spitzer_sig16-13_1280
×
ID
sig16-13
Subject Category
A.8.1.2  
Subject Name
Spitzer Space Telescope
Credits
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date
2016-08-26
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/6227-sig16-13-Spitzer-s-Journey
Type
Artwork
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Instrument
Color Assignment
Band
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
Spitzer Space Telescope
URL
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
1200 E. California Blvd.
City
Pasadena
State/Province
CA
Postal Code
91125
Country
USA
Rights
Publisher
Spitzer Science Center
Publisher ID
spitzer
Resource ID
sig16-13.tif
Metadata Date
2018-05-16
Metadata Version
1.2
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