DO THEY NEVER LEARN!

Inge

On 20 March 2012 18:08, Gervascio, Thomas L <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Tin whiskers at Saturn
>
> PASADENA, Calif. -- The Cassini plasma spectrometer instrument (CAPS)
> aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn has resumed operations. Mission
> managers received confirmation on Friday, March 16, that it was turned on.
> They plan to monitor the instrument for any unusual behavior.
> Last June, short circuits in the instrument led to unexpected voltage
> shifts on the spacecraft. As a precaution, mission managers turned off the
> CAPS instrument while engineers investigated the issue. The investigation
> led to the conclusion that tin plating on electronics components had grown
> "whiskers." The whiskers were very small, less than the diameter of a human
> hair, but they were big enough to contact another conducting surface and
> carry electrical current. Researchers are still trying to understand why
> whiskers grow on tin and other metals, but they know now that whiskers can
> grow in space and on Earth. It is believed that these or additional tin
> whiskers that may grow on Cassini cannot carry enough current to cause
> problems, but will burn out on their own like a lightweight fuse.
>
>
>
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