Hubble Space Telescope Seems "Safe Mode" After Gyroscope Failure

NASA's iconic space telescope, Hubble, is out of use for the moment.

Hubble, who has been observing the sky since 1990, has switched to protection mode after another of his gyroscopes keeping orientation failed, mission team members said Sunday night ( October 7).

"It's true, it's a very stressful weekend, and at the moment the HST is in secure mode while we find what to do, another gyroscope has failed, the first step is to try to bring the last gyroscope, which was off and that's a problem, "Rachel Osten, Hubble's deputy chief of mission at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said via Twitter Sunday, in response to questions and comments on Twitter about the failure of the rumor about the gyroscope. [The Hubble Space Telescope’s Most Amazing Discoveries]

This is true. Weekend very stressful. At present, the HST is in safe mode while we find what to do. Another gyroscope failed. The first step is to try to bring back the last gyroscope, which was turned off and that poses a problem.

– Dr. Rachel Osten (@ rachelosten) October 8, 2018

Hubble has six gyroscopes, all of which were replaced by astronauts during a maintenance mission in May 2009. The telescope needs three operational gyroscopes to "ensure maximum efficiency," the team members wrote. mission, which reduces this number to two (if the "problem" extinguished can not be put back online).

But that does not mean it's time to panic. Hubble can do good scientific research with two or even one gyroscope, said Sunday the astrophysicist Grant Tremblay of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, via Twitter.

"* IF * the third one does not restart, I would not be surprised if it switches to 1 gyroscope mode, keeping the second as a reserve. @ Rachelosten may know it, but I imagine is a stressful and difficult decision, I hope the brilliant employees of @STScI will be able to recover the third one. "Stress" he tweeted.

"This is not a difficult decision, @astrogrant: the plan has always been to switch to 1-gyroscope mode when there are two left in. There is not much difference between 2 and 1, and this saves a lot of observation time, the community desperately wants to " Osten tweeted in response.

"It's not really scary, we knew it was going to come in. The gyro lasted about six months longer than expected (it has almost disconnected in the spring). We'll fix the issues and come back." Osten added. in another tweet.

Not really scary, we knew it was going to happen. The gyroscope lasted about six months longer than expected (it has almost all disconnected in the spring). We will solve the problems and come back.

– Dr. Rachel Osten (@ rachelosten) October 8, 2018

Neither NASA nor its partner on the mission, the European Space Agency, had made any official statement about the gyroscope problem Sunday night.

Hubble is not the only famous NASA robot to experience technical difficulties at the moment. The agency's March rover Opportunity has not made any noise since June 10, when a huge dust storm blocked so much sun that the solar-powered rover could not reload its batteries. Since then, the storm has subsided and members of the Opportunity team have recently stepped up their attempts to hail the six-wheeled robot, which has been exploring the Red Planet since January 2004.

Curiosity, Opportunity's youngest cousin, recently adopted his rescue computer after having memory problems with his main brain. And the Kepler Space Telescope, which has discovered about 70% of the 3,800 exoplanets confirmed to date, consumes so little fuel that its maintenance staff recently shut it down to make sure it has enough propellant for it. move towards the Earth and emit its beam. latest data goes back to Earth next week.

The NASA Dawn spacecraft, which bypasses the dwarf Ceres since March 2015, also lacks fuel. His revolutionary mission could end this month, said Dawn's team members.

Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there" will be published on November 13th. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.