NASA's Genesis mission is being threatened by an overheating battery. The space- craft, launched in August, is due to return a small re-entry capsule containing solar wind particles to Earth in 2004, but the battery's temperature in the capsule has reached its upper limit of 23íC (73íF). It is feared that this could increase to over 56íC.
The overheating may have been caused by contamination and degradation of white paint on a thermal radiator, which has been polymerised by the sun's ultraviolet radiation.
Source: Flight International