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Earlier this week, NASA announced that its X-ray observatory Chandra had ceased normal operations and switched to safe mode. The fear was that the space telescope had failed the gyroscope. Chandra went into safe mode on Oct. 10, and NASA announced that operations would resume with the cause of safe mode now identified.
The gyroscope inside the space telescope was the main cause of Chandra's entry into safe mode, but the gyroscope did not completely fail. NASA reports that the safe mode was caused by a "problem" in the gyroscope, which resulted in a 3-second period of erroneous data, which caused the on-board computer to calculate a time of day. incorrect inertia for the spacecraft. When Chandra identified this data as erroneous, they entered safe mode.
To remedy this problem, NASA said that the team that operated Chandra had switched to the emergency gyroscope and placed the gyroscope with the seed in reserve. The team must apply pre-tested flight software updates before allowing Chandra to resume normal operations.
Normal operations should resume by the end of the week. When the spacecraft entered safe mode, several events occurred. The safe mode is designed to switch essential equipment to backup units and rotate the observatory so that solar panels receive maximum sunlight.
NASA scientists say the transition to safe mode was normal behavior for Chandra during the event that occurred. Like many NASA spacecraft exploring the solar system, Chandra works well beyond its intended life. The observatory was 19 years old and was originally scheduled to operate for five years before being extended to ten years.
SOURCE: NASA
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