Hubble's vision should clear up soon

Hubble's vision should clear up soon

NASA Hubble Space Telescope in Earth Orbit

The main eye of the Hubble Space Telescope, observing the universe, should soon recover. Wide-angle camera 3 (WFC3) turned off last week. This was done as a precaution after the on-board software detected anomalous readings inside the instrument.

Engineers now know that voltage levels actually remained within the normal range, and the problem is the telemetry problem, not the power supply. The mission team overloaded the necessary telemetry circuits, collected engineering data and returned the WFC3 to a working state.

During the next 48-72 hours, additional checks and calibrations will be carried out to ensure the normal functionality of the instrument. This was reported on January 15. An investigation is also planned to determine why the data values ​​turned out to be incorrect. It is expected that the camera will return to the usual work by the end of the week. WFC3 was installed on a telescope by astronauts in 2009. The camera studies the Universe in the visible wavelength range and photographs the most interesting and exciting objects. The Hubble Space Telescope has three more cameras: an advanced camera for shooting and two spectrographs. All of them continue to work on a standard schedule.

The Hubble telescope entered Earth orbit in 1990 as a joint mission of NASA and ESA. The device has several times hinted at his own old age. For example, in October, there was a problem with the gyroscope, which is responsible for the orientation of Hubble.

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