Hubble still in safe mode
NASA released a new but relatively terse update on November 1st describing the status of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been in safe mode since October 25th.
Hubble’s science instruments issued error codes at 1:46 a.m. EDT Oct. 23, indicating the loss of a specific synchronization message. This message provides timing information the instruments use to correctly respond to data requests and commands. The mission team reset the instruments, resuming science operations the following morning.
At 2:38 a.m. EDT, Oct. 25, the science instruments again issued error codes indicating multiple losses of synchronization messages. As a result, the science instruments autonomously entered safe mode states as programmed.
Mission team members are evaluating spacecraft data and system diagrams to better understand the synchronization issue and how to address it. They also are developing and testing procedures to collect additional data from the spacecraft. These activities are expected to take at least one week.
In other words, the engineers presently do not understand the problem, and are working at pinpointing its cause.
This is not a “glitch”. If used properly that word really refers to something that is akin to a short burp in operations. Hubble has been shut down now for ten days, and will remain so for at least one more week. This is a serious problem that remains unsolved.
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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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NASA released a new but relatively terse update on November 1st describing the status of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been in safe mode since October 25th.
Hubble’s science instruments issued error codes at 1:46 a.m. EDT Oct. 23, indicating the loss of a specific synchronization message. This message provides timing information the instruments use to correctly respond to data requests and commands. The mission team reset the instruments, resuming science operations the following morning.
At 2:38 a.m. EDT, Oct. 25, the science instruments again issued error codes indicating multiple losses of synchronization messages. As a result, the science instruments autonomously entered safe mode states as programmed.
Mission team members are evaluating spacecraft data and system diagrams to better understand the synchronization issue and how to address it. They also are developing and testing procedures to collect additional data from the spacecraft. These activities are expected to take at least one week.
In other words, the engineers presently do not understand the problem, and are working at pinpointing its cause.
This is not a “glitch”. If used properly that word really refers to something that is akin to a short burp in operations. Hubble has been shut down now for ten days, and will remain so for at least one more week. This is a serious problem that remains unsolved.
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.
Bob– did you mean “If used properly,……” ?
concerned: Yes. My brain sometimes does not communicate with my fingers. Fixed. Thank you.
I’ve said that Hubble is well past its “Sell By” date. That machine is essentially, done. We’ve lost Arecibo, and are losing Hubble. Dark Ages are easier to implement, when you can’t see.
We have the James Webb Telescope w/c is slated for launch on Dec. 18, 2021 at 7:20 EST. It has arrived now in Kourou French Guiana….
Hopefully, the complicated unfurling of it will have no glitch…
Lemuel Vargas: Just in case you don’t know, Webb is NOT a replacement for Hubble. It is an infrared telescope, not optical, and was designed for deep space cosmology. It will do great work, but when Hubble goes, the U.S. will no longer have an orbital optical telescope.
The Chinese plan to launch one comparable (or even better than Hubble) in just a few years, and keep it relatively close to their space station so they can maintain it.
Imagine a telescope of roughly the SOFIA specifications, but instead of riding in a 747 hull, riding in the cargo bay of a Starship. The development investment could be focused less on minimum mass and high redundancy, and more on timely deployment (not -10 years but -2 years), and repairability / upgradability.
Instead of going to the Lagrange 4 or 5 points to reduce Earth’s interference, a lunar “halo” orbit might be a workable improvement to Hubble’s LEO orbit. The opportunity might exist to have human visits as required, or even periodic returns of the observatory to LEO for work.
SOFIA stands for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, but the conceptual design could be adapted for visual use too.
It might be time for someone to reach out and fix it.
Sort of like an abandoned ship at sea,
Attach a propulsion system to it and start bringing it into a lower orbit of maintenance. A year later a ship could get close enough to fix it.
If you fix it you own it.
I bet a few private companies would go for this.
Charge the world half a billion a year for its use.