Hubble in safe mode
Click for original image.
The Hubble Space Telescope has gone into safe mode, pausing science observations on April 23, 2024 when its computer detected problems with one of its three working gyroscopes.
This particular gyro caused Hubble to enter safe mode in November after returning similar faulty readings. The team is currently working to identify potential solutions. If necessary, the spacecraft can be re-configured to operate with only one gyro, with the other remaining gyro placed in reserve . The spacecraft had six new gyros installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. To date, three of those gyros remain operational, including the gyro currently experiencing fluctuations. Hubble uses three gyros to maximize efficiency, but could continue to make science observations with only one gyro if required.
If they cannot recover that gyro and are forced to resume science operations in one-gyro mode, it will mean the end of sharp images such as the one to the right, released today of the barred galaxy NGC 2217, located about 65 million light years away. Three gyros stablize the telescope in all three dimensions. One gyro can stablize it, but not in all three dimensions. Sharpness will suffer. We will no longer have a fully capable general purpose optical telescope in orbit, no plans in the U.S. to replace it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Click for original image.
The Hubble Space Telescope has gone into safe mode, pausing science observations on April 23, 2024 when its computer detected problems with one of its three working gyroscopes.
This particular gyro caused Hubble to enter safe mode in November after returning similar faulty readings. The team is currently working to identify potential solutions. If necessary, the spacecraft can be re-configured to operate with only one gyro, with the other remaining gyro placed in reserve . The spacecraft had six new gyros installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. To date, three of those gyros remain operational, including the gyro currently experiencing fluctuations. Hubble uses three gyros to maximize efficiency, but could continue to make science observations with only one gyro if required.
If they cannot recover that gyro and are forced to resume science operations in one-gyro mode, it will mean the end of sharp images such as the one to the right, released today of the barred galaxy NGC 2217, located about 65 million light years away. Three gyros stablize the telescope in all three dimensions. One gyro can stablize it, but not in all three dimensions. Sharpness will suffer. We will no longer have a fully capable general purpose optical telescope in orbit, no plans in the U.S. to replace it.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Jared Isaacman’s proposed mission to service and reboost Hubble sounds a little better every day.
Particularly this day.
If asked, Elon would probably donate a falcon for the rendezvous and space walk. His engineering team could probably throw together with the needed components along with a boom to attach to hold everything still. What a great PR move it would be, that hasn’t been seen since launching a Tesla into space.
But then he will soon have the capabilities of launching a new Hubble telescope with 100 times the capabilities.
Looking at the bar galaxy in high-resolution, I see an unusual number of red stars along with the bright ones in our own galaxy. Although the faint galaxies are rather fuzzy, there are two unusual objects in the picture.
The bottom right has a large red object with a white halo, looking like a face looking through a toilet seat with red hair.
The other in the top left next to the edge of the frame is a binary system that looks like the stars are touching with a third object nearby… Three body problem? Cool pic.
Robert, until SpaceX/NASA can work on Hubble, could an orbital tug, or some other contraption with more gyros, be attached to Hubble for a short term workaround?
If and when we actually save/upgrade Hubble, imagine the current technology/hardware available. Hubble was designed for maintenance and upgrades. Forgive my layman’s phraseology. Large black boxes (with all the hardware inside) can be changed out. Less to perform with each spacewalk. I’m not saying it’s ‘easy’ but it is more efficient.
Just imagine some future capitalism in space project, where a space station / hotel is constructed near a still functional Hubble Space Telescope. Rooms with a view of Hubble will be popular.
Ronaldus Magnus: The last shuttle mission in 2009 attached a grapple fixture so that future repair missions could grab the telescope in a more standard manner, since the shuttle’s robot arm and cargo bay docking port were no longer available. That fixture could definitely be used by a tug to keep Hubble in orbit.
It was added to facilitate the de-orbit mission that NASA planned. I have always said that this mission would become a mission to keep Hubble flying. I still think my prediction will be right.
By the way, any tourist hotel would have to be kept a certain distance away. Scientists originally considered flying Hubble in formation with the space station (as China is doing with its optical telescope) but decided the nearby presence of a manned station could interfere with the telescope.
I had thought that perhaps NASA might use ring-laser gyroscopes (no moving parts), but it turns out that those ‘scopes have a MTBF (mean time between failure) of around 60,000 hours; meaning replacement about every 6 1/2 years. The remaining Hubble gyroscopes have been operating for well in excess of 130,000 hours. Hubble uses gas-bearing gyroscopes, which are the most accurate available. ESA has an explanation and diagram here (https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Gas_bearing_system),
and a paper dealing with space vehicle gyroscope applications is here (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19730003953/downloads/19730003953.pdf).
The .pdf is from 1972, but details all of the gyroscopes in use, including gas-bearing. The relevant section for this thread is 2.5.2.2. Note that in 1972, copies of the paper sold for $3, or a little more than $22 today.