NASA will try to fix the Hubble telescope by switching to backup hardware

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been offline for almost a month.

The telescope’s payload computer – a machine from the 1980s that controls and monitors all of the spacecraft’s scientific instruments – suddenly ceased to function on June 13. Engineers have fixed the problem since then, but with little success.

however, a recent announcement from NASA suggests a ray of hope: The agency tweeted Thursday that he had successfully tested a procedure that would switch parts of the telescope’s hardware to their backup components.

This could pave the way for the computer to bring the payload back online, leading to a restart of Hubble’s scientific observations.

NASA has announced that the procedure could take place as early as next week, after additional preparations and examinations. The telescope and scientific instruments on board remain in working order.

But the change will be “risky,” according to NASA’s director of astrophysics, Paul Hertz.

“You can’t actually get your hands on it and change gear or take a tension, which makes it very difficult,” he told New Scientist.

NASA successfully switched Hubble to its backup hardware before

Nasa

Hubble is the most powerful space telescope in the world; it orbits 353 miles above the Earth.

On June 30, NASA announced that it had discovered that the source of the payload computing problem was in the Hubble Science Instruments Data Processing and Control Unit (SI C&DH for short), where it resides the computer.

“A few hardware pieces on the SI C&DH could be the culprit (s),” NASA said.

Backup hardware items are preinstalled on the telescope. So it’s just a matter of switching to this redundant hardware. But before attempting the delicate passage of Earth, engineers must practice in a simulator, the agency added.

NASA has restarted Hubble using this type of operation in the past. In 2008, after a computer crash took the telescope offline for two weeks, engineers successfully switched to redundant hardware. A year later, the astronauts fixed two broken instruments while in orbit – Hubble’s fifth and final maintenance operation. (NASA currently has no way of launching astronauts into the space telescope.)

NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)

Bringing the $ 2 million observatory back online is essential for NASA.

“Hubble is one of NASA’s most important astrophysical missions. It has been operating for over 31 years and NASA hopes it will last for many more years,” a spokesperson for the agency told Insider in June.

Hubble, which launched into orbit in 1990, captured images of the birth and death of stars, discovered new moons around Pluto, and tracked two interstellar objects as they passed through our solar system. Hubble’s observations also allowed astronomers to calculate the age and expansion of the universe and to observe galaxies formed soon after the Big Bang.