Posted on 10/09/2018 12:31:30 AM PDT by LibWhacker
NASA is working to resume science operations of the Hubble Space Telescope after the spacecraft entered safe mode on Friday, October 5, shortly after 6:00 p.m. EDT. Hubble’s instruments still are fully operational and are expected to produce excellent science for years to come.
Hubble entered safe mode after one of the three gyroscopes (gyros) actively being used to point and steady the telescope failed. Safe mode puts the telescope into a stable configuration until ground control can correct the issue and return the mission to normal operation.
Built with multiple redundancies, Hubble had six new gyros installed during Servicing Mission-4 in 2009. Hubble usually uses three gyros at a time for maximum efficiency, but can continue to make scientific observations with just one.
The gyro that failed had been exhibiting end-of-life behavior for approximately a year, and its failure was not unexpected; two other gyros of the same type had already failed. The remaining three gyros available for use are technically enhanced and therefore expected to have significantly longer operational lives.
Two of those enhanced gyros are currently running. Upon powering on the third enhanced gyro that had been held in reserve, analysis of spacecraft telemetry indicated that it was not performing at the level required for operations. As a result, Hubble remains in safe mode. Staff at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute are currently performing analyses and tests to determine what options are available to recover the gyro to operational performance.
Science operations with Hubble have been suspended while NASA investigates the anomaly. An Anomaly Review Board, including experts from the Hubble team and industry familiar with the design and performance of this type of gyro, is being formed to investigate this issue and develop the recovery plan. If the outcome of this investigation results in recovery of the malfunctioning gyro, Hubble will resume science operations in its standard three-gyro configuration.
If the outcome indicates that the gyro is not usable, Hubble will resume science operations in an already defined “reduced-gyro” mode that uses only one gyro. While reduced-gyro mode offers less sky coverage at any particular time, there is relatively limited impact on the overall scientific capabilities.
For more information about Hubble, visit:
www.nasa.gov/hubble
Why, did they substitute pork for the lamb meat?
3 of 6 have failed since being installed in 2009.
Is the lifespan of the gyro systems limited by radiation exposure (as digital cameras also have such a limitation in space) or some other factor?
Fake news.
There is no Hubble telescope in orbit.
Yes, radiation, constant temperature fluctuations, cosmic rays, micrometeor impacts — and other things, afaik.
There are no more space shuttles to service Hubble anymore.
Oh Woe is us
Take a hike with your fake crap.
My sources on the Internet and several youtube.com channels insist that Hubble was zapped by a passing fleet of ufos and that NASA is covering it up.
Even Trump got the files with the last few pictures that Hubble managed to transmit to earth before the computers went crazy. Now we see why he is pushing for the Space Force!
/Sarc off.
Actually I'm just watching and waiting for the UFO loons to run with this angle any day now.
You don’t really exist. You’re a bot in some Russian mainframe somewhere.
Yes there is.
The photo below (credit NASA) is from the 2009 STS service mission to Hubble and shows the astronauts holding the reaction wheels.
Yup. And that is a damned shame. This sad state of affairs should properly be laid at the feet of both parties, as neither stepped up at the appropriate time to make sure we would have access to LEO servicing missions. Hubble has done some amazing science as a result of our ability to service it after orbital insertion. Other satellites benefited from this capability as well.
*ping*
Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
But if he hikes too far he’ll fall off the edge!
None of them protected, upheld, nor defended the Constitution when illegal alien Hussein violated the 1st amendment turning NASA into a mudslime outreach!
The Shuttle was a good working vehicle but I was always a bit dissatisfied with its capabilities.
It could not reach geosynchronous orbit and could not make a powered reentry (the consequences of this are obvious)
I realize giving the shuttle would be ridiculously expensive but they really are necessary to make servicing and retrieving satellites possible.
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