Posted on 08/07/2004 5:39:39 PM PDT by Dog Gone
One of four science instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope has apparently failed and engineers are trying to determine whether it can be fixed.
One of the telescope's spectographs - specifically the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) - provides spectra and images at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. It was installed in 1997 during the second servicing mission by space shuttle astronauts.
The STIS - which went into "suspended mode" Tuesday - was designed to operate for only five years and has met or exceeded all its scientific requirements, NASA officials said in a written statement. It had not been scheduled for replacement or upgrade as part of any future servicing mission.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration reported that preliminary findings indicate a problem with the +5V DC-DC power converter on Side 2, which supplies power to the mechanism's electronics. STIS suffered a similar electrical malfunction in 2001 that rendered Side 1 inoperable.
A report from Goddard Spaceflight Center says, "... it is now believed that STIS’s mechanism functions are inoperable and unrecoverable."
NASA has convened an Anomaly Review Board to investigate the problem.
In the current observing cycle, STIS accounts for about 30 percent of all Hubble scientific observation programs. The instrument had enabled astronomers to search for massive black holes and study star formation, planets, nebulae, galaxies and other objects in fine detail.
Among the major scientific achievements made by scientists using STIS were:
• Independent confirmation of the age of the universe by finding the coolest and hence oldest white dwarf stars that exist in our galaxy.
• Conducted an efficient census of galaxies to catalog supermassive black holes.
• The fraction of galaxies that prove to contain a central massive black hole has proven to be surprisingly large.
• Made the first-ever measurements of the chemical composition of the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet.
• Saw the magnetic "footprints" of the Jovian satellites in Jupiter aurora, and made clear images of Saturn's aurora.
• Studied the dynamics of circumstellar disks, the region around young stars where planets may form.
• Found the first evidence of the high-speed collision of gas in the recent supernova remnant SN1987A
STIS was developed jointly with Ball Aerospace under the direction of principal investigator Dr. Bruce E. Woodgate of the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Hubble's other instruments, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 are all operating normally, NASA said.
Additional information about STIS is available on the Internet at the Hubble Project Servicing Mission 2 Web page.
The problem is that were not ready to trade it in with anything. We should send up a shuttle to fix it but we are to scared to do so. If we let Hubble go we wont have anything ready to put into its place for many years.
Who cares if the original mission lifetime was conservative.
If it's like a toyota and everything is going wear out at once, so there's no point in replacing the alternator because the engine and transmission are weeks away from failure too, then I agree with you.
But if it's like a 59 Chevy and the tires are old but the engines still purring, then don't dump it. Give it to the kids and let them play with it. It's not like it's learned everything it can learn, and we need a new bigger scope to make advances. I'm not saying don't build a bigger scope, but the cost of maintaining and continuing to use this one has got to be relatively small at this stage.
Ouch! Isn't it a bit much to confuse common (albeit inaccurate) phraseology with satanic theology? It is common to describe computer failure as a crash when no matter-to-matter impact has occurred; as blowing up when no explosion has occurred; or as going down in flames when no combustion has occurred. The English language would be dull indeed if every phrase had to be 100% technically and grammatically correct.
Or am I failing to see that your tongue is in your cheek?
No point in throwing away a slightly used but still functioning space telescope: sell it on E-bay to the highest bidder.
Now lets see, I was responding to someone who considers calling a satellite failure, a death, to be an affirmation of evolution.
Yup, I'll second that. Hubble has paid us tremendous dividends, but it was never intended to last forever. In fact IIRC, the main batteries cannot be service, cannot be swapped out, and only have a few more years of service left in them at most. After that, Hubble's kaput no matter what. End of story. (Though I sure would like to have the optics for my backyard observatory!)
That damn Windows 95.
It is $1.5 billion baseline for each repair mission. Using the car analogy, at some point the monthly repair is more than payments on a new one.
Damn! First Rick James and now this. What a crazy week.
****************
Probably the same place my dead cars go.
That Space Telescope is gonna look awful silly sitting on cinder blocks in your front yard. ;-p
I have always wondered, when one wishes to curry favor, what spices does one use?
Sugar and anise
Well a $1.5 billion service call is a lot of money, but how much does a new one cost? I still suspect we are using a flat tire as an excuse to buy a new one, when it makes sense to fix the flat tire and build a betterone. Then give the working Hubble to the kids, when our better version is ready.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.