If you have been missing the stunning pictures of the cosmos provided by the Hubble Space Telescope lately, you are not alone. A series of problems has kept the telescope from operating properly for about three weeks, and those problems are not over yet. Estimates for a return to operation range from sometime next week to sometime next year.

These are not the first problems to beset the Hubble telescope, of course, though this delay is not yet the longest since the original mirror problems discovered shortly after launch. That record-length failure was caused by problems with the telescope’s gyroscopes, a failure that kept the instrument down for six weeks in 1999. Given the scope of those system faults, the corrections were made fairly quickly when replacement gyroscopes were installed by U.S. astronauts during a dramatic space shuttle mission.

This time, the problems seem to be related to the telescope’s command and data-handling system, which kept the instrument from capturing and transmitting its famous images of the universe. Land-based controllers switched to a backup system earlier this week, and the remote repair process was progressing smoothly until a power-supply problem kept a camera from rebooting, and then further computer system problems forced the repair team to abandon its efforts.

Art Whipple, a Hubble manager, told reporters that the soonest the telescope could be operating fully again is late next week. At the worst, the observatory might remain inactive until astronauts arrive with a replacement part next year.
“We’re still optimistic. We’re in the early stage of going through a mountain of data that has been downloaded over the last 24 hours,” Whipple said.

As things stand now, unless the telescope can be repaired remotely by its Goddard Space Flight Center controllers, the instrument will be out of service until at least next February. That is when the next (and last) shuttle mission to repair the Hubble is currently scheduled to be launched. The duties of the Hubble Space telescope are expected to be taken over by newer space-borne equipment in the near future.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 2:40 pm under Science and technology, Technology.

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