Engineers report Hubble fix appears successfully
Engineers this morning announced that their attempt to switch to backup computer hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope was successful.
The switch included bringing online the backup Power Control Unit (PCU) and the backup Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) on the other side of the Science Instrument and Command & Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit. The PCU distributes power to the SI C&DH components, and the CU/SDF sends and formats commands and data. In addition, other pieces of hardware onboard Hubble were switched to their alternate interfaces to connect to this backup side of the SI C&DH. Once these steps were completed, the backup payload computer on this same unit was turned on and loaded with flight software and brought up to normal operations mode.
They are now doing tests to make sure everything is working as expected, and preparing the telescope to bring it out of safe mode and resume science operations.
This is great news, but to bring everyone down to Earth, we must remember that Hubble no longer has any redundancy in this area. Should there be another similar computer failure, the telescope will then be dead in the water, with the only way to bring it back a manned or robotic mission — something we presently do not have the capacity to do — to replace these units.
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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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Engineers this morning announced that their attempt to switch to backup computer hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope was successful.
The switch included bringing online the backup Power Control Unit (PCU) and the backup Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) on the other side of the Science Instrument and Command & Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit. The PCU distributes power to the SI C&DH components, and the CU/SDF sends and formats commands and data. In addition, other pieces of hardware onboard Hubble were switched to their alternate interfaces to connect to this backup side of the SI C&DH. Once these steps were completed, the backup payload computer on this same unit was turned on and loaded with flight software and brought up to normal operations mode.
They are now doing tests to make sure everything is working as expected, and preparing the telescope to bring it out of safe mode and resume science operations.
This is great news, but to bring everyone down to Earth, we must remember that Hubble no longer has any redundancy in this area. Should there be another similar computer failure, the telescope will then be dead in the water, with the only way to bring it back a manned or robotic mission — something we presently do not have the capacity to do — to replace these units.
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.
In April, Bob mentioned that Sierra Nevada had plans to build a manned version of Dream Chaser. With that perhaps a NASA mission five years from now could launch a crewed mission to Hubble to replace sensors, navigation hardware and other aging components.
Isn’t the Dragon 2 available right now for this?
Tom D Asked: “Isn’t the Dragon 2 available right now for this?”
It is hard to say.
Dragon was not designed with this kind of mission in mind, so it does not have a Canadarm or other mount to hold relative position during the work, and Dragon does not have an airlock, so all the astronauts would have to be in spacesuits during the work. Since NASA is not studying this possibility, I suspect that they think Dragon is not suitable for the job. I suspect that Starliner has the same limitations.
When you look at the pictures from the previous Hubble servicing missions you can really see how Shuttle was like a space station on the go designed for working on things, big things, in space. Huge cargo hull, flat areas, big and stable. You can get those features in different ways from different craft you could assemble in space. But it would be designed for the purpose.
George C: Starship will be even more a “space station on the go” than was Shuttle.
Mark: A manned version of Starship is likely to be ready far sooner than a manned version of Dream Chaser.
The recent fixes to Hubble don’t have to last forever. If they last as little as three more years, the capability to fix it in some fashion via human intervention should once more be within the capabilities of the U.S.