It’s been a bad month for Hubble, the primary visible light space telescope in operation today. In operation since the 1990’s, the telescope has relied on occasional visits by astronauts to fix broken components. In 2009, the last visitation occurred, where astronauts fixed all six gyroscopes necessary to point the telescope into the night sky. The telescope only needs three to operate at full capacity, but gyroscopes are a major point of failure, so some are kept as extra capacity. In the recent years, three of the six have broken, leaving the telescope with just the right amount to maintain full control. However, one more failed in the first week of October. NASA’s telescope can operate at a highly reduced capacity on just one, so the plan was to switch to one and preserve the other to extend the operational life as long as possible.
In a surprise turn of events, NASA was able to restore one of the gyroscopes that had previously been “dead” through a complicated series of events that involved rotating the telescope and switching the gyroscopes off and on again to clear any blockage. This may not work for long, however, as the gyroscopes are liable to failure. In the end, Hubble will fail, and have to be shut down permanently. In the meantime, however, we can revel in a return to full science operations soon.
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Aw no. Poor Hubble telescope
I do believe the next thing we should do, is build a better space station with fully new 2018 gear.
I agree with Nate. We should just build a better space station. Having old research materials never turned out well for anyone doing research.
That’s so interesting
If it was up to you to make the decision would you fully replace Hubble with a new telescope or repair it until it gets to old?