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Astronauts John M, Grunsfeld And Richard Linnehan, Astronauts John Grunsfeld And Richard Linnehan Near The Hubble Space Telescope, Temporarily Hosted In The Space Shuttle Columbia’S Cargo Bay, March 8, 2002. (Photo By Encyclopaedia Britannica/UIG Via Gett
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Astronauts John M, Grunsfeld And Richard Linnehan, Astronauts John Grunsfeld And Richard Linnehan Near The Hubble Space Telescope, Temporarily Hosted In The Space Shuttle Columbia’S Cargo Bay, March 8, 2002.
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Photo: Encyclopaedia Britannica/UIG Via Getty Images
Astronauts John M, Grunsfeld And Richard Linnehan, Astronauts John Grunsfeld And Richard Linnehan Near The Hubble Space Telescope, Temporarily Hosted In The Space Shuttle Columbia’S Cargo Bay, March 8, 2002. (Photo By Encyclopaedia Britannica/UIG Via Gett
less
Astronauts John M, Grunsfeld And Richard Linnehan, Astronauts John Grunsfeld And Richard Linnehan Near The Hubble Space Telescope, Temporarily Hosted In The Space Shuttle Columbia’S Cargo Bay, March 8, 2002.
… more
Photo: Encyclopaedia Britannica/UIG Via Getty Images
The Hubble Space Telescope is again conducting experiments after a mechanical failure crippled the groundbreaking observatory for three weeks.
In a statement Saturday, NASA officials said the telescope was brought back online Friday and conducted its first experiment since Oct. 5. During almost three decades orbiting Earth, Hubble is credited with having expanded understanding of the solar system and how it formed.
HUBBLE DOWN: NASA working to fix groundbreaking telescope
On Oct. 5, the telescope put itself into “safe mode” after the failure of one of its six gyroscopes, which keep the telescope pointed accurately for extended periods of time as it sends data back to scientists. The failure was not unexpected as it “had been exhibiting end-of-life behavior for approximately a year,” NASA officials said at the time.
The failure brought the total number of lost gyroscopes to three. Hubble needs just three gyroscopes to be fully operational and the Oct. 5 failure would have left the telescope with the necessary three — except that another was rotating at excessively high rates, NASA officials said. It had previously been shut off.
But NASA says it has fixed the problem and put safeguards into space so that it doesn’t happen again.
“Last week the operations team commanded Hubble to perform numerous maneuvers, or turns, and switched the gyro between different operational modes,” the space agency’s Saturday statement said. This “successfully cleared what was believed to be blockage between components inside the gyro that produced the excessively high rate values.”
Astronomers, no doubt, are relieved. During the era when NASA operated its own space shuttles, astronauts could service the telescope, and they did so five times before the shuttle program was shuttered in 2011. Now, NASA has no way to get astronauts to the telescope for repairs.
The telescope can operate — albeit at a lower functional level — with two, or even just one, working gyroscope.
Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, also is experiencing trouble.
Initially expected to launch in 2007 and cost $500 million, Webb has been delayed until March 2021 — assuming it gets congressional approval to continue after development costs breached the $8 billion cap set in 2011. NASA estimates it now needs $9 billion.
Webb is meant to revolutionize the world’s understanding of planet and star formation.
Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at [email protected] or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.
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