The plan calls for using four pairs of «test masses» made of at least three different materials — such as beryllium, niobium and platinum - iridium — which would be kept in a vacuum and cooled to just a few kelvins, reducing temperature fluctuations that can
degrade measurement accuracy.
The loss of the low - frequency channels, particularly at 6.9 GHz, would mainly impact the
measurement of SST and soil moisture, although it also would
degrade the
accuracy of some other retrievals such as
measurements of wind speed.