The NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory is back online

October began brutally for NASA with the failure of the Hubble and Chandra observatories in the space of a week. However, Hubble is back online after the emergency gyroscope has been put back into service. Chandra works again after NASA engineers have put together a fix for his gyro problems. NASA can sweep the sky again in search of X-rays.

Chandra is one of the four NASA Great Observatories missions, along with Hubble, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The first three are still functional, but the Compton Gamma Ray observatory failed in 2000 because of a bad gyroscope. Yes, these components are problematic, but you need them to determine the direction of the spacecraft via kinetic moment. They must turn permanently and end up wearing them.

Fortunately, Chandra's gyroscope problem was less serious than Hubble's. With Hubble, NASA was not able to put a backup gyroscope online after the failure of the old one. As a result, she may not have the three necessary for a complete operation. Chandra reported an error and stopped unexpectedly, but NASA quickly identified the cause of a bad gyroscope. On October 10, one of the observatory's gyroscopes recorded three seconds of corrupted data, canceling the calculation of the momentum of the on-board computer. Incorrect values ​​enabled safe mode, thus preventing damage to the telescope.

NASA said it brought Chandra back to operational capability after activating a new emergency gyroscope. Whoever caused the error in the first place could still works well, but the team decided to put it in reserve because there were unused gyroscopes that would certainly not allow to save corrupted data. NASA may try to reactivate the "bad" gyroscope in the future as a last resort to keep Chandra active as hardware failure progresses.

The galactic core of the Milky Way – composite image taken by Spitzer, Hubble and Chandra telescopes

The team performed a series of maneuvers with the new equipment online to make sure Chandra can find their bearings properly. Next week, NASA will fine tune the new gyroscope configuration of the spacecraft and download a new patch that will change the configuration of the computer.

This quick fix means that Chandra should remain functional for years to come. NASA believes that the other gyroscopes are in good working order and have a busy life. Chandra started operating 19 years ago, and his five-year mission profile has already been exceeded. Even if he died tomorrow, it would still be an incredible success.

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