[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope returned to science operations on July 17 after a hiatus of more than a month as controllers successfully transitioned the observatory from orbit to a backup payload computer.
NASA said the 31-year-old telescope’s instruments are now operational almost five weeks after a payload computer malfunctioned, which controls these instruments. These instruments will resume normal scientific observations after completing the calibrations.
After weeks of investigation, engineers concluded that the most likely cause of the payload computer problem was a malfunction of a power control unit, which supplies power to the computer hardware. . Not being able to reset the power control unit from the ground, the engineers decided to switch to the back-up hardware of the control and data management of scientific instruments, which has its own control unit. power control.
This transition to backup hardware began on July 15, and on July 16, NASA reported that it had successfully activated the backup computer system. By July 17, the controllers had restored the scientific instruments to the safety modes they had been in since the payload computer malfunctioned on June 13.
“I am proud of the Hubble team, from current members to Hubble alumni who have stepped in to provide support and expertise,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a July 17 statement on the recovery. from Hubble. “Through their dedication and thoughtful work, Hubble will continue to build on its 31-year heritage, expanding our horizons with its view of the universe.”
The weeks-long effort to restore Hubble to normal operations, one of the telescope’s longest outages in recent years, has heightened concerns about the telescope’s future, especially since the last maintenance mission telescope took place over ten years ago, in 2009.
NASA officials said they are taking a cautious approach to restore Hubble during the latest malfunction to prevent a bad situation from getting worse. “I have given the Hubble team a very clear directive that putting Hubble back into service safely and not unintentionally damaging the system is the highest priority, not speed,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, at a meeting on June 29. “While we are all anxious to see Hubble take over science, the top priority is to be very careful and deliberate and not to rush.”
He said at the time that this cautious approach included two levels of review of all procedures being developed to correct the problem. NASA also used a “high fidelity simulator” to test these procedures before hooking them up to the telescope.
Despite recent problems, astronomers remain optimistic that Hubble will continue to operate for much of the decade. At an American Astronomical Society meeting in early June, ahead of this latest issue, officials from the Space Telescope Science Institute said they were working on initiatives to extend the life of the telescope and its instruments to in 2030.
[ad_2]
Source link