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Post by swamprat on Mar 4, 2019 21:32:34 GMT -6
The Hubble Space Telescope Has a New Camera GlitchBy Tariq Malik, 6:00pm 3/4/19, Science & Astronomy
The glitchy camera is 17 years old.
One of the most prolific camera eyes on the Hubble Space Telescope has gone dark, and scientists are scrambling to understand why.
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument suffered a glitch late Thursday (Feb. 28) when an error popped up during what was supposed to be a routine computer procedure, according to a NASA status update.
"The error indicated that software inside the camera had not loaded correctly," NASA officials wrote in the update late Friday (March 1), adding that a team of Hubble engineers, software experts and flight controllers are studying the malfunction. "This team is currently working to identify the root cause and then to construct a recovery plan."
To be clear, the Hubble telescope is still able to study the universe. The nearly 29-year-old observatory has three other science instruments that are all in working order and performing operations. They include Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, its Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and its Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, NASA officials wrote.
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys is a visible-light instrument that has taken some of the space telescope's most dazzling images of the universe. The camera was installed on Hubble in March 2002 by astronauts on a servicing mission. An electrical short knocked the camera offline in 2007, but it was repaired by another crew of astronauts in 2009 during NASA's STS-125 mission, the final servicing flight to Hubble.
The camera malfunction is the latest in a series of glitches for Hubble in recent months.
In January, Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 took itself offline after onboard software detected abnormal voltage readings. The voltage levels were actually fine, with the glitch tracked to a telemetry issue, NASA officials said.
Last year, a problem with a vital gyroscope used for pointing Hubble stalled science operations for much of October.
The Hubble Spate Telescope is a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency. It launched in April 1990 on a planned 15-year mission and has lasted nearly twice that long.
www.space.com/hubble-space-telescope-new-camera-glitch.html
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Post by auntym on Mar 12, 2019 17:25:46 GMT -6
THANK YOU HUBBLE
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Post by swamprat on Jun 21, 2021 12:07:25 GMT -6
Hubble Space Telescope sidelined by issue with its 1980s computerBy Chelsea Gohd, 21 June 2021
"There is no definitive timeline yet as to when this will be completed, tested, and brought back to operational status," the Hubble operations team said. Update: Monday (June 21), NASA shared a statement with Space.com about Hubble's current status: "The Hubble operations team is working to solve the payload computer issue onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The team is working to collect all the data available to them to isolate the problem and determine the best path forward for bringing the computer back to operations. At this time, there is no definitive timeline for bringing the computer back online. However, the team has multiple options available to them and are working to find the best solution to return the telescope to science operations as soon as possible. Launched in 1990, Hubble has contributed greatly to our understanding of the universe over the past 30 years."
NASA is working quickly to fix the Hubble Space Telescope after an issue with a 1980s-era computer on board caused the famous orbiting observatory to temporarily shut down.
The Hubble Space Telescope, which in 2020 marked its 30th year in orbit, halted operations on Sunday (June 13) just after 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) after problems arose with one of the telescope's computers from the 1980s. The Hubble operations team suspects that the trouble could be due to a degrading memory module, according to a NASA statement. The team is hard at work trying to correct the issue, switching to one of the telescope's several backup modules.
"Assuming that this problem is corrected via one of the many options available to the operations team, Hubble is expected to continue yielding amazing discoveries into the late 2020s or beyond," the operations team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland told Space.com in an email. However, "there is no definitive timeline yet as to when this will be completed, tested and brought back to operational status," they added.
On Sunday, the telescope's main computer stopped receiving signals from the payload computer and sent an error message to the ground system back on Earth, which alerted the operations team that something was wrong, the team said.
"Analysis indicates the error is likely due to a degraded memory problem. Memory can degrade over time due to years of exposure to radiation in space. Issues like this are expected, which is why there are backup memory modules on the spacecraft," they added.
The computer that stopped working on Sunday is a payload computer that controls the observatory's science instruments as part of the telescope's Science Instrument Control and Data Handling module. The module was last replaced during the last astronaut servicing mission to the observatory in 2009. The payload computer is a NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 (NSSC-1) system that was built in the 1980s.
"The payload computer is from the 1980s, which is when Hubble was designed and built. Like all spacecraft hardware, the harsh environment of space can take its toll on electronics. That is why there are backup memory modules and a backup payload computer onboard the spacecraft that we can switch to if needed," the operations team members wrote in the email..
After the telescope shut down on Sunday, Hubble's main computer then automatically put all of its instruments into safe mode and, on Monday (June 14), team members at NASA Goddard restarted the payload computer that caused the shutdown. However, after the restart, the computer ran into the same problems that caused the initial shutdown.
The operations team is "currently in the process of switching memory modules onboard the spacecraft," the team said. Once this process is complete and the craft has been thoroughly tested, it will resume normal operations.
This is not the first time that Hubble has run into problems that needed fixing. Early in the telescope's lifetime, scientists found an error with the observatory's pointing-control system and issues with the shape of its primary mirror.
The first servicing mission was launched to work on the telescope in 1993, and missions to Hubble continued to launch throughout NASA's space shuttle program. On these missions, astronauts worked on many issues, including replacing batteries and the gyroscopes that allowed Hubble to point steadily at far-away spots in the cosmos.
Hubble has overcome problems more recently as well. This past March, for example, the telescope went into a protective "safe mode" after suffering an apparent software glitch but bounced back a few days later.
www.space.com/hubble-telescope-shutdown-1980s-payload-computer
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Post by swamprat on Jul 17, 2021 13:00:23 GMT -6
NASA revives ailing Hubble Space Telescope with switch to backup computer By Chelsea Gohd 1 day ago
Hubble is back!
The Hubble Space Telescope switched to backup hardware on July 16, 2021 after a glitch on June 13 took the scope offline.
The Hubble Space Telescope has powered on once again! NASA was able to successfully switch to a backup computer on the observatory on Friday (July 16) following weeks of computer problems.
On June 13, Hubble shut down after a payload computer from the 1980s that handles the telescope's science instruments suffered a glitch. Now, over a month since Hubble ran into issues, which the Hubble team thinks were caused by the spacecraft's Power Control Unit (PCU), NASA switched to backup hardware and was able to switch the scope back on.
With Hubble back online with this backup hardware, the Hubble team is keeping a close watch to make sure that everything works correctly, according to a statement from NASA.
"So far so good - just so proud of the @nasahubble team as I received the updates all day. Assuming continued progress, Hubble will be in science mode later this weekend! Looking forward to that first “after” picture," Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the science mission directorate at NASA tweeted following the news that Hubble was on the road to recovery.
Included in this switch to backup hardware, the team brought the backup PCU online as well as the backup Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF), which is on the other side of the Science Instrument and Command & Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit, according to the statement. The PCU diverts power to the SI C&DH while the CU/SDF formats and then sends data and commands throughout the scope.
Other pieces of hardware were also swapped to their backup versions to allow the telescope to function.
After carefully switching to the alternative hardware on Hubble, the team turned on the scope's backup payload computer, loaded it with flight software and returned Hubble to "normal operations mode," according to the statement.
In addition to monitoring the scope and its "new" hardware following this change-up, the Hubble team has also begun recovering Hubble's science instruments from the "safe mode" configuration that they entered following the June 13 glitch.
Getting all of the science instruments back online will take more than a day, according to the NASA statement, because the team has to ensure that the instruments are at a stable temperature and are able to run safely. After the telescope's science instruments are out of safe mode, the Hubble team will calibrate them and then return to science work, according to the statement.
This is not the first time that Hubble has had technical issues in space, but the telescope, which launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1990, has not been serviced by astronauts since 2009, with the shuttle program ending just two years later. Despite some technical bumps in the road, like a flaw with its primary mirror that was fixed in 1993, Hubble has consistently captured some of the most breathtaking views of the cosmos ever seen.
www.space.com/hubble-space-telescope-backup-hardware-success
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