Posted on 12/12/2023 7:21:17 AM PST by Red Badger
The Hubble Space Telescope (seen from space shuttle Atlantis in 2009) had six new gyros installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. As of now, three of those gyros remain operational, including the one that was unstable. File Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo
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Dec. 7 (UPI) -- NASA will put the Hubble Space Telescope back to work Friday, after a weeklong delay in its mission to investigate one of the spacecraft's steering devices, the agency announced Thursday.
"Hubble's instruments and the observatory, itself, remain stable and in good health," a release from NASA said.
Scientists were looking into the telescope's "gyroscope systems," which are used to turn the craft and point it in the right direction, and investigating why one of the gyros had become unstable, leaving the craft in safe mode.
"Gyros measure how fast Hubble is turning as it moves from one target (a star or a galaxy, for example) to another, and they help control the telescope's aim so Hubble remains fixed on a target as it's observing," NASA explains on its website.
The Hubble's gyroscopes are considered extremely stable and are sensitive to even the slightest movements.
NASA says Hubble has one of the most accurate pointing systems of any spacecraft in operation and can capture light from objects billions of light-years away (one light-year is 5.88 trillion miles). Those objects appear as specks a few pixels tall in the gyroscope's camera.
"Such observations require pinpoint accuracy and a fixed, steady gaze as Hubble speeds some 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 km/hour) around Earth," NASA says on the telescope's website.
"Hubble's pointing and control system is equivalent to keeping a laser shining on a dime over 200 miles away for however long Hubble takes a picture -- up to 24 hours. Any movement beyond that level of accuracy would make the image blurry or throw Hubble off the target.
NASA said Hubble is equipped with a three gyro system, but is capable of operating with one if it needed to.
"After analyzing the data, the team has determined science operations can resume under three-gyro control," NASA said. "Based on the performance observed during the tests, the team has decided to operate the gyros in a higher-precision mode during science observations. Hubble's instruments and the observatory, itself, remain stable and in good health."
An emergency gyroscope issue caused Hubble to enter "safe" mode on November 23rd when one of the gyro's sensors gave a false readout. When it's in safe mode, science operations are suspended, the gyroscopes become inactive and won't steer the Hubble, which then waits for new directions from the ground.
While remarkably stable, the Hubble's gyroscopes do fail over time due to wear and tear on metal wires called flax leads that are about the width of a human hair. They carry power into the gyroscope and data out of it and, over time, begin to corrode and weaken or even break.
The spacecraft had six new gyros installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. As of now, three of those gyros remain operational, including the one that was unstable.
Ping!.............................
Well that’s good news, but I thought they were previously reporting that it was finished for good.
Naturally. Back when Hubble was being designed and built, it was all about the engineering and fabrication, instead of being a DEI bandaid to the hurt feelings of the mentally ill.
That was a click-bait headline unsupported by the underlying article ... or anything else.
I know ... FReeper tradition yaddayaddayadda ..
The hell with it.
Read the articles, folks. Headlines are increasingly worthless.
When Hubble was being designed, computers were slow and crude.
Imagine what they could design today....................
Now it’s the people that are slow and crude.
True.....................
They feared that it was. The on-board computers detected a problem and shut it down................
Zombie telescope. Hubble may outlive Webb! (Though I hope not -- they both are amazing.)
Theoretically, they should last forever.................
Not when it's man-made, unfortunately. I tell myself the same thing whenever I buy a new hot rod: "If I take care of it, it should last forever." No joke, I have one now that will spring a leak or break just sitting in the garage...
Hubble has taken nearly one million exposures.
Hubble has observed more than 32,000 astronomical targets.
Astronomers using Hubble data have published nearly 8,500 scientific papers.
Circling Earth every 96 minutes, Hubble has traveled approximately 3.1 billion miles.
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has archived more than 42 terabytes of data from Hubble.
...And, it is now going on 34 years in orbit. Not bad for a 15 year design life from an "evil military industrial complex" contractor (Lockheed Martin).
Oh, what model BMW?..................
LOL! German engineering... No, it's a Mopar. We've started calling it Christine because of its uncanny ability to break without even moving.
Well, Mopar was owned by Daimler-Benz for a few years.............😉
My brother bought a Mini for his daughter last year, her first car. I told him he shouldn’t buy it, and especially the turbo model for her first car. I think he was really buying it for himself, but he’s had nothing but trouble with it since he bought it.
Great news!
The SR-71 Blackbird remains unduplicated and unsurpassed, and was designed with sliderules and blueprints.
By well educated and patriotic engineers..............
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