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The Hubble Space Telescope is about to resume operations after NASA has compared its behavior to a "turn it off and on" approach to a broken desktop.
The telescope was discarded at the beginning of the month after a gyroscope. failed, leaving him unable to point in the right direction during the observations.
The device was expected to fail at some point this year, but the surprise occurred when a backup did not start properly after the initial failure. As a result, Hubble remained in safe mode and all scientific observations are pending.
Gyroscopes are needed to keep Hubble in the right direction because it operates 545 km above the Earth. Accurate pointing is crucial: astronomers use the telescope to scrutinize the cosmos deep, revealing distant galaxies, black holes and solar systems. Last week, astronomers announced that they may have discovered the first moon outside our solar system, with Hubble's help.
The problem posed by the emergency gyro was highlighted when detectors in the gyroscope incorrectly reported that the wheel inside the aircraft was spinning a lot.
NASA stated that Hubble should return to normal scientific operations shortly after performing a "gyro restart" on October 16, which shut down the aircraft. for a second. The intention was to remove any errors that may occur during a restart on October 6th. It did not seem to work. On October 18, a series of spacecraft maneuvers, called turns, were launched to try to remove any blockage around the sealed "float" containing the rotating wheel in the gyroscope. At the same time, the system has been switched between two modes to facilitate the procedure. The team thinks abnormal rotational speeds could have been generated if the float was off-center in the aircraft.
The next day, the telescope was moved and commutations were issued: the problem now seems to be solved. Hubble said: "Hubble's operations team is planning a series of tests to evaluate gyro performance in conditions similar to those encountered during routine scientific observations, including moving to targets, locking a target and pointing accuracy. . Once these engineering tests are completed, Hubble should soon resume its usual scientific activities. "
Jessie Christiansen, of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, called the news" great relief. "
" Hubble down The -gyro mode would have in particular hampered our efforts to characterize extrasolar planetary atmospheres in the years that preceded [the launch of the new space telescope] James Webb, "she told the Gizmodo website, which compared the efforts of NASA engineers with and again," a familiar approach for all those who worked with or in the computer.
The 28-year-old telescope had already had problems with its gyroscopes.The shuttle astronauts replaced the six pbadengers in 2009 during an outing in the # Space during the last maintenance mission Three of the devices are now considered unusable.
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