NASA announced Monday that the Hubble Space Telescope is closer to being back in ‘normal science operations’. It also recovered WFC3 instrument, Wide Field Camera 3.
After the Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument came back online on November 7, this instrument is now the second to be operational. It makes observations in space.
Wide Field Camera 3 will conduct its first science observation after the telescope was put into safe mode following “lost sync messages”.
In a statement, the U.S. Space Agency stated that the WFC3 account for over a third the telescope’s observation time.
NASA has recovered Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3(WFC3) instrument
Following the Advanced Camera for Surveys’ return on November 7, WFC3 will be the second to make its way back.
NASA stated that Ground engineers are currently working with NASA to change the WFC3’s parameters. This will allow WFC3 to manage several missing sync messages and continue to function normally in the event of future synchronization issues.
In an attempt to safeguard its ultraviolet detector, these changes will be made to the Cosmic Origins Scope.
These processes will take “several weeks” to complete testing and uploading of the spacecraft.
According to European Space Agency, the WFC3 instrument “extends Hubble’s capabilities by providing wide field imagery spanning wavelengths starting from ultraviolet through visible/optical and ending in the near-infrared.”
The telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument extends Hubble’s capability by providing wide-field imagery spanning wavelengths from the ultraviolet, through visible/optical, and into the near infrared
“The team has found no additional message loss since November 1st, NASA is taking additional steps to protect the hardware in the case of an issue. According to the agency, further investigations are ongoing to determine the source of the missing messages.
“The Hubble instruments remain in safe mode, and all other spacecraft continue to function as planned.”
On October 23rd, at 1:16 a.m. ET (EDT), the Hubble science instruments received their first error codes. These errors ‘indicate the loss of a particular synchronization message’.
Hubble engineers reset their instruments. Science operations were resumed on Monday morning.
On October 25, at 2:38 AM EDT, a second set of error codes was issued. This indicates that there has been a loss of a particular synchronization message.
After that, they were put in safe mode.
The Hubble can be in “safe mode” but does not collect any data or observe celestial objects. However, the Hubble can still be powered up.
Hubble has been orbiting the Earth for more than 30 year and first quit working in June when it encountered problems with its 1980s computer.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland attempted to reboot the computer on June 14 after it had stopped functioning properly June 13. However, they encountered the same problem and couldn’t get the computer to work normally.
After problems with an 1980s-era computer controlling its science instruments, Hubble lost power in June.
After a period of disruption for a month, science operations at the Hubble were resumed July 17.
To switch Hubble from its primary computer to its backup, the agency performed a very risky maneuver.
The switch ‘was performed to compensate for a problem with the original payload computer that occurred on June 13 when the computer halted, suspending science data collection.’
The switch, which started on July 15, involved bringing the backup Power Control Unit (PCU) online, as well as 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 brings power to the SI C&DH components, while the CU/SDF sends and formats commands and data.
The backup payload system had been inactive since Hubble’s 2009 servicing mission.
Hubble is a NASA-European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency joint venture that has been studying the universe for more than three decades.
The data has enabled more than 1.5million observations of the universe to be made. Over 18,000 papers have been published on this basis.
The telescope orbits Earth at 17,000 mph (22.7300kph in low Earth orbit) at approximately 340 miles altitude. This is slightly faster than that of the International Space Station.
Hubble was launched in April 1990 at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Despite a series repairs and updates made by astronauts who were spacewalking during NASA’s shuttle era, Hubble shows more signs of ageing.
Hubble, which was launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on April 9, 1990, is showing signs of ageing despite numerous repairs and upgrades by NASA spacewalking astronauts.
Named after Edwin Hubble, famed American astronomer who was born in Missouri 1889. He discovered the speed at which the universe expands and also the reasons for it.
NASA will replace the Hubble Telescope with the $10 billion James Webb Telescope. It is scheduled to launch next month.
The James Webb Telescope, after months of delay, will lift off into space on the ESA Ariane-5 rocket, December 18, 2021.
After a journey of 5,800 miles, the telescope was finally unpacked last month in French Guiana.
NASAs Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990 by NASA, is still operational and has collected more than 1.3 Million observations.
On April 24, 1990 the Hubble telescope was launched via Discovery, a spaceship from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The name of the facility is Edwin Hubble, famed astronomer who was born in Missouri on 1889.
Perhaps his most notable discovery, the Hubble constant, is that the universe expands at a faster rate than it does now is what he is best known for.
The Hubble telescope is named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble who was born in Missouri in 1889 (pictured)
Hubble has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990 and helped publish more than 15,000 scientific papers.
It orbits Earth with a speed of 17,000mph (27.300kph), in low Earth orbit at around 340miles in altitude.
Hubble can point at.007 degrees of accuracy, equivalent to shining a laser beam on Franklin D. Roosevelt on a dime 200 miles away (320 km).
Edwin Hubble, who is widely regarded as one of the most important astronomers in history, is the name of the Hubble telescope.
Hubble’s primary mirror is 2.4 meters (7 feet, 10.5 inches) across and in total is 13.3 meters (43.5 feet) long – the length of a large school bus.
Hubble’s March 1990 deployment and launch marked the biggest advancement in astronomy ever made since Galileo’s telescope.
Our view of the universe has changed dramatically over the past 25 years thanks to five missions of servicing and more than 250 years of operation.