Landsat 5 is back!
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 12:22PM The USGS is pleased to announce that Landsat 5 resumed imaging on January 10, 2008. Landsat 5 imaging was suspended on October 6, 2007 due to a battery cell failure with one of its two working batteries. The Flight Operation Team determined that 1 of 22 cells failed in one of the batteries. This reduces the overall power available from the batteries and requires a new battery charging procedure to avoid overheating. In November 2005, Landsat 5 transitioned to operations using a fixed solar array due to a failed motor which reduces the efficiency of battery charging. This, combined with the reduced power available from the batteries, increases the complexity of maintaining a safe power balance while collecting imagery.Over the next few weeks, the team will continue to increase collection of imagery while closely monitoring power. Data collected will be available soon following analysis and calibration of the data.
Reader Comments (2)
Zomg, where is the t-shirt?!
Oh Yes! this should be the defining t-shirt for the gis/gps/geocaching crowd!!!
ExCellEnt !!!