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It was just on Tuesday that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was reported to be experiencing downtime due to a gyro problem. On Wednesday, NASA took the time to provide a brief update on the evolution of the situation.
In a long press release, NASA explains that previous reports are accurate and that Hubble's gyroscope suite is changing. Specifically, one of the last three gyroscopes necessary for the proper functioning of the telescope shows signs of malfunction, forcing engineers to place the spacecraft in "safe mode" while it determines the procedure to follow.
The report is not very rich in new information, but it does provide some clarity on how the events unfolded. Specifically, a gyroscope that was already running finally failed and forced NASA to switch to its last backup gyroscope. Unfortunately, this emergency gyroscope "was not working at the level required for operations," according to NASA, and it is now up to the scientists and engineers of the agency to determine the course of action.
"Scientific operations with Hubble were suspended while NASA was investigating the anomaly," reads in the update. "An anomaly review committee, including experts from the Hubble team and industry, familiar with the design and performance of this type of gyroscope, is being trained to study this." problem and develop a recovery plan. If the results of this investigation can recover the failed gyroscope, Hubble will resume the scientific operations in its standard configuration with three gyroscopes. "
This is the best of scenarios, but if Hubble's conquering gyro fails to break free of his funk, NASA will place the probe in a "reduced gyro" mode that uses a single gyroscope, backing it up. other as a backup to extend the telescope ease of use as long as possible.
"Although the reduced gyroscope mode offers reduced sky coverage at all times, the impact on global scientific capabilities is relatively limited," NASA says.
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