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Last week, two of NASA's "big observatories" – the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory – were temporarily out of service following problems with failed gyroscopes.
Hubble and Chandra both stopped in orbit – October 5 and 10, respectively – after independent gyroscope problems caused them to lose their bearings and enter a secure mode in which only their vital survival systems remained active.
As the Inquisitr previously reported, while Hubble was clearly experiencing a technical problem with one of its three active gyroscopes, in Chandra's case, the gyroscope's failure was only suspected and NASA was still investigating the problem to find out what was wrong. Did not go with the X-ray observatory.
Since then, Hubble has turned on his emergency gyroscope, which unfortunately did not work up to it. The space telescope team is currently awaiting the verdict of an anomaly analysis commission, which will decide on the next action plan, the Inquisitr reported Saturday.
Meanwhile, NASA has just released an update on Chandra, announcing that experts had finally figured out why the observatory had gone offline. As in the case of Hubble, the problem was attributed to a defective gyroscope, which was put in reserve.
Chandra has successfully switched to another gyroscope and is now back to "his normal scoring mode," officials said of the space agency.
"The Chandra operations resume after identifying the cause of safe mode: our operations team managed to bring the spacecraft back to its normal scoring mode. After the reconfiguration of the software, we will soon return to scientific operations, "tweeted the Chandra observatory team earlier in the day.
Update! Chandra operations resume after the cause of safe mode has been identified: our operations team has managed to return the spacecraft to its normal scoring mode. After the reconfiguration of the software, we will soon return to scientific operations. https://t.co/68Q1plKHOP pic.twitter.com/Inld39cSTV
– Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) October 15, 2018
According to NASA, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has been disconnected after a problem on one of its gyroscopes has resulted in "a three-second period of erroneous data, which has drives the on-board computer to calculate an incorrect value for the spacecraft. " It was this erroneous indication that finally triggered safe mode, putting Chandra out less than a week after Hubble had a similar hardware failure.
As Extreme technology Stresses that Chandra is equipped with four pairs of gyroscopes, which means that the spacecraft has enough functional equipment to be operational again.
In fact, the operations team expects the X-ray observatory to resume its scientific activities by next week.
Launched on July 23, 1999, Chandra is the youngest of the "Great Observatories" and has more than exceeded its "initial conceptual lifespan," the space agency said. Built to last five years, Chandra is still 19 years old.
Last month, NASA extended the Chandra X-ray astronomy mission by granting the Smithsonian Astrophysical Astrophysical Observatory of Cambridge, Massachusetts a $ 563.5 million contract extension until September 30, 2024 – with two options of three years extending the contract until September 30, 2030.
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