Heating the spacecraft to clean its optics would risk misaligning its sensitive instruments. What next?
Scientists now face a complex task – implementing a plan to understand the ice distribution within the optical system and mitigate its current and future impact if accumulation continues.The Euclid space telescope, a European Space Agency mission designed to map the Universe’s dark secrets, faces a unique challenge: layers of water ice, thinner than a strand of DNA, are starting to obstruct its vision. This phenomenon is a common issue for spacecraft venturing into the frigid expanse of space.
“Some stars in the Universe vary in their luminosity, but the majority are stable for millions of years. So, when our instruments detected a faint, gradual decline in photons coming in, we knew it wasn’t them – it was us,” Mischa Schirmer explained. One of the easiest ways to decontaminate a spacecraft is to use a procedure developed before launch. This involves heating the entire spacecraft by turning on every onboard heater for several days. The temperature gradually increases from approximately -140°C to a slightly warmer -3°C in certain spacecraft parts. Teams at mission control would be responsible for sending the necessary commands to initiate this decontamination procedure.
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