Artykuły o Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

[Orionid]

Hubble still going strong 30 years after launch
April 24, 2020 William Harwood


The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990, one day after its launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA

Thirty years ago Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard the shuttle Discovery with a famously flawed mirror, the opening chapter in an improbable saga of redemption and scientific discovery that revolutionized humanity’s view of the cosmos with jaw-dropping images now familiar to millions.

The list of Hubble’s achievements is both long and stunning, everything from proving the existence of supermassive black holes to pinning down the age of the universe to within a few percent.

Hubble’s exquisite vision has allowed astronomers to study the chemical make up of exoplanet atmospheres, to capture flyby-class views of planets in Earth’s solar system and to collect mind-bending “deep field” images showing the first galaxies coalescing in the wake of the big bang.

Adam Riess shared a Nobel Prize for Hubble research that helped confirm the expansion of the universe is accelerating, not slowing down or flattening out as expected, one of Hubble’s most profound results. He’s using the telescope now to help resolve discrepancies in that expansion rate, high-stakes research that could reshape the theoretical underpinnings of cosmology.

“Obviously there will be other telescopes, but I don’t know if there’s going to be a telescope that takes us as far from sort of where we were to where we end up,” Riess said in an interview.

“It’s almost like when (sailors first) circumnavigated the globe, there’s only sort of one time that you get to open up that much unexplored territory. Hubble arrived at a time when we had never seen the universe with that kind of crisp resolution and able to see so far out. The new telescopes will really help follow up on so much of what we learned from Hubble. It’s just that Hubble was such a game changer.”

James Fanson, project manager of the Giant Magellan Telescope, one of the huge new ground-based observatories now under development, said in a statement that Hubble had revolutionized astronomy “in the same way Galileo’s telescope did 400 years ago when first turned to the heavens.”

“Hubble’s images reached the level of art, and it’s discoveries touched the imagination of ordinary people around the world. Hubble became the ‘people’s telescope,’ and it will always have a cherished place in our history and culture.”

NASA planned to unveil a 30th anniversary photo from Hubble on Friday as part of a relatively subdued celebration. Because of coronavirus travel restrictions, a variety of events marking the anniversary have been put on hold.

“We’ll unveil the image for our staff just as it’s being unveiled for everybody else around the world,” said Ken Sembach, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute. “And it is spectacular. We’re going to be doing that virtually, though. We had all kinds of events planned around the world and with COVID, it’s just going to be different.”

Many of Hubble’s most spectacular discoveries were unimagined when the telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, especially after engineers discovered its supposedly near-perfect 94.5-inch primary mirror was perfectly flawed, a victim of spherical aberration that prevented the telescope from bringing starlight to a sharp focus.

Seven years behind schedule and some 400 percent over budget, Hubble had been launched to great fanfare and promises from NASA that it would take astronomy to new heights. Spherical aberration was an utterly gut-wrenching, almost impossible-to-believe defect, caused by an oversight during the mirror’s fabrication.

The dismal news was announced on June 27, 1990, and Hubble quickly became the butt of jokes on late night television and the subject of heated congressional hearings, including one two days later in which Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a long-time NASA supporter whose district included the Goddard Space Flight Center, famously referred to Hubble as a “techno turkey.”

“What does this mean for the rest of the things you want to do?” she was quoted by UPI. “Are we going to keep ending up with techno turkeys? I think this has seriously hurt the credibility of NASA when they’ve had so much time and enough money to get it right.”

Said now-retired Hubble project scientist Ed Weiler, recalling the sense of despair that many felt: “We went from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of Death Valley.”

“You know, people would stop me, pushing my little girl around the block, saying I’m so so sorry you have to work on that national disgrace,” he said. “It’s great when your neighbors tell you that, right?”


Ed Weiler, former Hubble chief scientist and former head of NASA’s science directorate. Credit: NASA / W. Hrybyk

But engineers quickly figured out a way to correct Hubble’s blurry vision: installing a new camera, one that Weiler had recommended earlier, with relay mirrors ground to prescriptions that would exactly counteract the primary mirror’s aberration.

Building on that idea, another device, known as COSTAR, was designed to direct corrected light into Hubble’s other instruments.

During a make-or-break December 1993 shuttle servicing mission, the new Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and COSTAR were installed by spacewalking astronauts. They also replaced Hubble’s solar panels and other critical components.

The following January, NASA unveiled the results during a news conference at Goddard: crystal-clear views of a galaxy known as M-100 that left no doubt Hubble was finally ready for prime time. Before the briefing began, Weiler showed Mikulski the pictures.

“I had them all laid out,” he said. “I had a picture of M-100 taken with spherical aberration, taken from the ground and then taken from Hubble, all three together. And she walked in. She looked at them and she said, ‘my God, it’s like putting on my glasses.’ I’ll never forget that moment.”

NASA would go on to launch four more servicing missions, installing new, state-of-the-art instruments and replacing aging components like critical fine guidance sensors and gyroscopes, which move the telescope from target to target and then lock-on with rock-solid stability for detailed observations.

Eleven years after NASA’s fifth and final servicing mission in May 2009, Hubble is still going strong. The Space Telescope Science Institute still receives some 1,200 observing proposals each year, of which only about 250 can be accommodated.

“Hubble’s doing extremely well,” Sembach said. “It’s still operating at peak performance. That means that it’s continuing to have a full schedule of observations. In fact, the observatory’s probably as efficient right now in conducting science as it’s ever been. All the instruments are working really well.”

He said Hubble’s subsystems also are behaving “reasonably well.”

“So good power, good pointing, good communications, good storage,” he said. “The gyros are operating better than we had expected. There are some little issues here and there, but we’re dealing with those with flight software changes and so forth. So right now it’s actually looking really good.”

The gyros are critical to Hubble’s longevity. The telescope was launched with six ultra-stable gyroscopes, but only three at a time are needed for normal operation. During the final servicing mission, all six were replaced but since then, three have failed, leaving Hubble without any redundancy.

“The main issue that we’re seeing in one of them … is the bias rate,” Sembach said. “Every gyro has a little drift over time, it drifts a little bit from the position it thinks it’s pointing to the position it senses. And so that’s something that we correct all the time.

“In one case, one of the gyros, that bias level is getting up to levels where it’s getting a little bit more flaky at times, which means we occasionally lose a guide star acquisition, or the pointing isn’t quite as good as we would have liked. That’s still a small number of cases. And the bias levels that we see are still within the range of being correct.”

To be on the safe side, engineers have developed software that would allow Hubble to operate with just two gyros or even one. The downside is the telescope could only reach targets in about half the sky at any given time instead of 85 percent or more with all three gyros.

“The thought would be, at least at the moment, that if one of those three gyros fails, we would, in fact, drop to one gyro control and turn the other one off to preserve its lifetime if we thought that that was the right thing to do at the time.”

Based on Hubble’s current health, he added, “we should have another good five years in it. And maybe longer. I would, for one, never bet against Hubble.”

Neither would Riess.

“You should never count out Hubble, that’s what I’ve learned,” Riess said. “We’re pretty optimistic we can get five more years. But as I said, I wouldn’t count it out. If we come back in, you know, 10 years or 15 years and we found a way to keep it going in some useful way, that wouldn’t shock me either.”

Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/24/hubble-still-going-strong-30-years-after-launch/

[Orionid]

30 notable objects that launched with the Hubble Space Telescope [CS]


STS-31 mission specialists Kathy Sullivan and Steve Hawley reveal astronomer Edwin Hubble's Mount Wilson guiding eyepiece aboard the space shuttle Discovery in April 1990. (NASA)

April 24, 2020 — Thirty years ago, NASA's space shuttle Discovery lifted off on a mission to release into orbit what would become the world's most famous science instrument, the Hubble Space Telescope.


The Hubble Space Telescope is seen suspended above the space shuttle Discovery's payload bay before being deployed into orbit by the STS-31 crew on April 25, 1990. (NASA)

Launched on April 24, 1990, the orbiting observatory was one of the largest items that the shuttle ever carried into space over the course of its 135 missions. The realization that came after the Hubble was deployed that its mirror was flawed and then the later astronaut-performed upgrades that made possible the telescope's astronomical revelations, captured more than just the universe at which it was pointed, but also the attention and adoration of the public like no other apparatus has to date.

The Hubble Space Telescope's deployment also dwarfed, literally and figuratively, everything else that was on board Discovery for the STS-31 mission.

As an example — and as one of 30 items noted here to mark the flight's 30th anniversary — most people are likely not to know that Hubble's ID plate was not the only dedication plaque for an observatory to enter space that day. Stored inside one of Discovery's middeck lockers, in a duffel bag-sized pouch called the Official Flight Kit (OFK), was a brass marker that was borrowed from what was then the new home of Iowa's largest refracting telescope.

The plaque for the John H. Witte, Jr. Observatory in Sperry, Iowa, which was flown on behalf of the Southeastern Iowa Astronomy Club at the request of one of state's senators, included an excerpt from "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain: "We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened."


The dedication plaque for the John H. Witte, Jr. Observatory in Sperry, Iowa was flown on the STS-31 mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. (Southeastern Iowa Astronomy Club)

Hubble's historic hitchhikers (items 2 through 4)

Packed alongside the Witte plaque were two items already rich with history.

Discovery's commander Loren Shriver flew a few items for his alma mater, Purdue University in Indiana, but the standout among them was a silk scarf once worn by famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart in 1930. The yellow and brown scarf had a diamond and stripe pattern and was part of the university's aviation archives.

Also flown in the STS-31 OFK was a piece of wood from "Old Ironsides," the USS Constitution, the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. The historic fragment was on loan from the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland (mission specialist Bruce McCandless had graduated from the academy in 1958).

Carried separate from the OFK by mission specialists Kathryn Sullivan and Steven Hawley was a direct link to their primary payload's namesake.

"I happened upon the idea that there must be some astronomical artifact from one of the observatories [that astronomer Edwin] Hubble worked on that we possibly could take along as a memento," Sullivan said during a television broadcast. "And with some considerable assistance from the Smithsonian museum we managed to obtain this device, which is the guiding eyepiece we are assured."

The eyepiece came from the 100-inch telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, where Hubble conducted some of his most important work on the composition of galaxies beyond our own.

"It's a great pleasure to have something of such historical significance, something that so directly symbolizes Edwin Hubble's fundamental contributions to astronomy," said Sullivan.

Space Telescope stand-ins (items 5 through 8 )

Before returning to Earth, Shriver, Sullivan, Hawley, McCandless and Discovery's pilot, Charlie Bolden, posed together for a photo on the middeck. Included in the shot was a prop seen floating through the shuttle's cabin throughout the mission: a paper model of the Hubble Space Telescope.


Steve Hawley (at right) holds a paper model of the Hubble Space Telescope while posing with his STS-31 crewmates Loren Shriver, Charlie Bolden, Kathy Sullivan and Bruce McCandless aboard the space shuttle Discovery in April 1990. (NASA)

The 13-inch-tall (33-centimeter) model — 1/40th the size of the real spacecraft — included labels for each panel and part of the observatory. It was utilized by the crew as a reference during the deployment and check-out operations.

Also on board the space shuttle, included in the OFK, were several other stand-ins for the space telescope.

The European Space Agency (ESA), which partnered with NASA to contribute to the assembly and operation of the Hubble, sent to space 250 space telescope art prints to present to its team members after the mission. Similarly, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama flew a die to emboss Hubble certificates to thank those who contributed to the flight.

Marshall was also one of four organizations, including Sky & Telescope magazine, that sent a real stand-in for a major part of the observatory: primary mirror witness plates. These nearly 2-inch square (4.5-cm) mirrors were among the dozen that were inside the same tank when the telescope's mirror was aluminized. The plates were then used to test the integrity of the reflective surface, substituting for the 7-foot, 10.5-inch (2.4-meter) primary mirror, itself.


One of four witness plates that were used to test the integrity of the Hubble Space Telescope's primary mirror before being flown on the STS-31 mission in April 1990. (National Air and Space Museum)

Space (sans-telescope) science (items 9 through 14)

The Hubble was not the only science instrument to fly on Discovery. Before and after the telescope was deployed on April 25, the STS-31 crew conducted several other experiments to advance other disciplines than astronomy and cosmology.

The mission's protein crystal growth payload continued the work on biomedical studies begun on earlier space shuttle missions. The experiments, which involved growing more perfect protein crystals in the microgravity environment of space than what is possible on the ground, were aimed at improving food production and developing new medicines to combat cancer, AIDS, high blood pressure, organ transplant rejection and rheumatoid arthritis.

Another investigation, proposed eight years earlier by a then-high school student, observed the effect of weightlessness on electrical arcs.

"We did notice that the behavior of the arc became more and more erratic and its amplitude increased as the [magnetic] field went up," Bolden reported, describing the electrifying scene inside the Jacob's ladder-inspired arc chamber.


STS-31 mission specialist Kathy Sullivan and pilot Charlie Bolden monitor the student science project "Investigation of Arc and Ion Behavior in Microgravity." In the background can be seen some of the astronauts' personal decals and pennants. (NASA)

Other research performed by the STS-31 mission included an off-the-shelf skin-puncture device to measure the response of a test subject's immune system (in this case, Hawley's) to several different types of toxins all at once; a membrane processing payload to advance material production, including polymers, catalysts and superconductors; an automated monitor to measure particle contamination and detachment in Discovery's payload bay during the pre-launch and ascent periods of the flight; and a monitor to record both the rate and total dosage of all types of ionizing radiation (gamma ray, neutron and proton radiation) encountered by the orbiter while in space.

Discoveries aboard Discovery (items 15 through 20)

"You know what that is, I bet," radioed Hawley to Mission Control.

"Not only what it is," replied astronaut capcom Story Musgrave, "but whose it is."

That cryptic exchange was inspired by Hawley, floating on Discovery's flight deck, holding up a wristwatch to the camera for Mission Control to see. The timepiece was not intended to be a part of the STS-31 mission, but rather had gone missing from among astronaut Sonny Carter's personal items during Discovery's previous mission, STS-33, five months earlier.

The techs preparing the spacecraft between the two flights failed to find the watch, but there it was when Hawley removed a few of the shuttle's panels while on orbit.

"How much do you think it is worth to him to have it back?" Hawley joked, as he strapped the watch to his wrist.

"Well, that watch gets two rides for the price of one," Musgrave responded.

Other items in Discovery's OFK were limited to just the single launch, but might seem no less random in their selection. There were the football and soccer ball, both deflated, flown for the University of South Carolina and the South Texas Youth Soccer Association, respectively; an umpire's indicator for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York; and a 4-inch square (10-cm) ceramic tile for the American Whippet Club, a dog breeding club.

There were also two pocket-size copies of the United States' Constitution, flown on behalf of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.

Crew choice (items 21 through 29)

In addition to their own personal items, the STS-31 astronauts also had a chance to request mementos be flown for some of the organizations that supported them and their success aboard the mission.

For example, McCandless flew a patch for the U.S.S. McCandless, a U.S. Navy frigate named for both his grandfather, Commodore Byron McCandless, and his father, Bruce McCandless I.

Hawley flew a pennant for the University of Kansas Jayhawks, his alma mater's sports teams, and Sullivan, an oceanographer with the U.S. Naval Reserve, flew a footprint-shaped decal that was inscribed, "Follow in the Footsteps of a Navy Oceanographer." Both items were affixed to the shuttle's middeck lockers during the mission, as was a U.S. Naval Reserve 75th Anniversary decal.

Fifty-two small paper stars were flown for the Literacy Volunteers of America, which were later presented post-flight to advocates in each of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Two National Youth Fun and Fitness patches were packed for the President's Council on Physical Fitness & Sports and the National Recreation and Park Association.

The crew also continued NASA tradition by flying 7,300 small American flags, 500 embroidered STS-31 mission patches and 560 Silver Snoopy Award lapel pins to be distributed to NASA employees, contractors and dignitaries as a token from the flight after Discovery's return to Earth.

Eyes on the observatory (item 30)

There were numerous other items carried aboard Discovery during the STS-31 mission, but only one type of payload was able to document and convey the sheer majesty of the Hubble Space Telescope being released into orbit.

Discovery flew two specially-designed IMAX cameras, one mounted in the payload bay and one used by the crew inside the cabin, that were used to capture the first views of humanity's "eyes on the universe." The resulting footage was used in the IMAX films "Destiny in Space" (1994) and "Hubble 3D" (2010).

Like a number of the items that were flown on the STS-31 mission, the cameras were later transferred to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Of course, that does not include the Hubble Space Telescope, itself, which remains operational in Earth orbit 30 years after its launch.


STS-31 mission specialist Steve Hawley discusses Sonny Carter's lost and found wristwatch with capcom Story Musgrave in Mission Control from aboard shuttle Discovery. (NASA)


U.S. flag and STS-31 crew patch flown aboard the April 1990 mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. (Astronaut Scholarship Foundation)


An IMAX camera mounted in space shuttle Discovery's payload bay captures the release of the Hubble Space Telescope by the STS-31 crew. (NASA)

Source: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-042420a-hubble-space-telescope-sts31-30-years.html

[Orionid]

Aging Hubble returns to operations after software glitch
by Jeff Foust — March 12, 2021 [SN]


NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope resumed observations on the evening of March 11, more than four days after a software glitch triggered a safe mode. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope resumed observations March 11 after a software error placed it in a protective safe mode several days earlier, but the incident is a reminder of the telescope’s mortality.

NASA said Hubble resumed observations at 8 p.m. Eastern March 11, more than four and a half days after a software error caused the spacecraft to go into a safe mode, suspending normal operations of the nearly 31-year-old space telescope.

The software error was traced to what an agency statement called an “enhancement” recently uploaded to the spacecraft. That enhancement was intended to compensate for fluctuations from one of the telescope’s gyroscopes, but a glitch in the software caused a broader problem with Hubble’s main computer, triggering the safe mode early March 7.

Controllers resolved the problem for now by disabling that software enhancement, and plan to correct the flaw and test the new software further before uploading it again.

That safe mode, though, caused two other problems with Hubble. The telescope’s aperture door, a cover on top of the telescope, is designed to automatically close when the spacecraft enters safe mode to prevent stray sunlight from entering, which could damage instruments and optics. During this safe mode, though, the door did not swing shut, a problem never before seen with Hubble.

Engineers troubleshooting the problem found that the door did close once they switched to a backup motor. They have now set that motor as the primary one as they continue to study the problem with the other motor.

One of Hubble’s instruments, the Wide Field Camera 3, “experienced an unexpected error” during the recovery from safe mode. NASA did not elaborate on the error but said that observations using that instrument will remain on hold as engineers study the problem. The spacecraft’s other instruments, including a camera and two spectrographs, are functioning.

The safe mode, and related issues, is a reminder of Hubble’s age. The spacecraft was launched in April 1990 and serviced by the space shuttle five times, most recently in May 2009. With the shuttle long since retired, astronomers know that, at some point, Hubble will suffer an unrecoverable failure that will end its historic mission.

“Right now we’re in the middle of what I think is a very good news story about Hubble,” Jennifer Wiseman, an astronomer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said at a conference last year about the space telescope. She and others believe that the telescope can remain operational through much of this decade, based on trends in the performance of key components, such as its gyroscopes and batteries.

Some have argued for a new servicing mission to Hubble using either a robotic or crewed spacecraft. John Grunsfeld, a former NASA astronaut who flew on three Hubble servicing missions and later served as the agency’s associate administrator for science, presented a concept last year for a crewed servicing mission using an Orion spacecraft and a module equipped with a robotic arm and airlock. That spacecraft would dock with Hubble, with astronauts then performing repairs much as they did on past servicing missions.

“We have the technology to go back to Hubble,” he said in a presentation last June to the Space Transportation Association, noting that a commercial crew vehicle, like Crew Dragon, could be used in place of Orion. “We could keep Hubble going for another few decades.”

NASA, though, has shown no public interest in such a servicing mission, whose expense would run in the hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. “It’s not currently on the books. Nobody is really talking about it a lot, at least publicly,” Grunsfeld acknowledged.

Without a servicing mission, Hubble could last for many years, or fail tomorrow, astronomers like Wiseman acknowledge. “We don’t know how long Hubble’s going to last,” she said.

Source: https://spacenews.com/aging-hubble-returns-to-operations-after-software-glitch/

[Orionid]

Hubble resumes science observations after software error
March 12, 2021 Stephen Clark [SFN]


The Hubble Space Telescope in the payload bay of space shuttle Atlantis during the last servicing mission in May 2009. Credit: NASA

NASA has partially restored the Hubble Space Telescope to science mode after a software error temporarily halted observations, but engineers continue studying a problem that kept the telescope’s aperture door from closing and a separate concern with Hubble’s main camera.

NASA said Friday that Hubble resumed scientific observations at 8 p.m. EST Thursday (0100 GMT Friday) after going into safe mode Sunday. Safe mode is an event in which Hubble places itself into a safe configuration to await instructions from the ground.

Hubble entered safe mode Sunday after it detected a software error within the spacecraft’s main computer, NASA said. Ground teams at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland traced the software glitch to code recently uploaded to Hubble to “help compensate for fluctuations from one of its gyroscopes,” NASA said.

The gyroscopes are part of Hubble’s pointing system, uses reaction wheels to pivot the telescope toward distant galaxies, stars, and planets to collect scientific data and imagery. The gyroscopes measure the direction and rate of the spacecraft’s movement when it turns.

Engineers found the software error that caused Hubble to enter safe mode last weekend involved an enhancement that did not have permission write to a specific location in the main computer’s memory, NASA said. Ground teams removed the suspect code from the computer to allow Hubble to quickly resume scientific operations, and will update the enhancement to upload to the spacecraft again in the future, officials said.

But NASA continues to study two separate issues engineers discovered when Hubble was in safe mode.

One involves the aperture door at the top end of the telescope, which failed to automatically close when Hubble went into safe mode Sunday. The door prevents bright sunlight from damaging Hubble’s sensitive instruments, and closing the lid to the telescope during a safe mode is supposed to protect the inside of the telescope in case the spacecraft accidentally points toward the sun.

NASA closed the aperture door when space shuttles visited Hubble for servicing missions, but the door has never been commanded closed upon detection that the spacecraft’s pointing was straying too close the sun, the agency said in a statement.

Further analysis by ground teams indicated the cover remained closed despite commands and power sent to the aperture door. Manual commands uplinked from ground controllers to the door’s primary motor also failed to budge the telescope cover, NASA said.

“However, the same commands sent from the ground to its backup motor did indicate movement, and that motor is now set as the primary motor. The team is looking at options to further reduce any associated risk,” NASA said.

Engineers are also assessing a “low voltage issue” with Wide Field Camera 3, Hubble’s newest science camera and most-used instrument. The error is preventing the camera from resuming its observations, but Hubble’s other instruments are fully recovered and operational, NASA said.

The famed orbiting observatory, developed by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency, was serviced and upgraded by five space shuttle missions. The most recent servicing visit by astronauts aboard the shuttle Atlantis in 2009 installed Wide Field Camera 3.

With the space shuttles retired, Hubble is in the twilight of its mission. NASA’s next advanced space-based observatory — the James Webb Space Telescope — is set for launch in October to extend the vision of Hubble with a larger mirror and a more sophisticated suite of scientific instruments.

Last year, during virtual celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of Hubble’s launch, mission managers said they expected to get at least five more years of worthwhile astronomical observations with the long-lived observatory. Only three of Hubble’s six gyros are still functioning, and the telescope needs three for regular operations.

That leaves Hubble without redundancy in its gyro system. Engineers have devised ways to continue some of the telescope’s observations with just one gyro, but that would come with limitations in where Hubble could point as it orbits about 340 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth.

Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/03/12/hubble-resumes-science-observations-after-software-error/

[Orionid]

NASA blames recent Hubble woes on aging hardware
March 31, 2021 Stephen Clark [SFN]


The Hubble Space Telescope, seen from the space shuttle Columbia at the end of a 2002 servicing mission. The observatory’s door is open in this picture. Credit: NASA

Hardware problems that cropped up earlier this month on the Hubble Space Telescope, now approaching the 31st anniversary of its launch, are the latest signs the observatory is showing its age.

Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/03/31/nasa-blames-recent-hubble-woes-on-aging-hardware/

[Orionid]

Computer problem takes Hubble offline
by Jeff Foust — June 19, 2021 [SN]


Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — Spacecraft controllers are continuing to work on a faulty computer memory system on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope that has stopped telescope operations for nearly a week.

A payload computer on Hubble stopped working June 13, the agency said in a June 16 statement. Engineers speculated that the computer, used to manage operations of Hubble’s science instruments, malfunctioned because of a degrading memory module, putting the instruments into a safe mode.

The agency said at the time that it would switch of a backup memory module that day and, after about a day of testing, restart the instruments and resume science observations.

However, in a June 18 statement, NASA said those efforts to switch to a backup memory module failed because “the command to initiate the backup module failed to complete.” An attempt to restore the computer with both the original memory module and the backup unit also failed.

Source: https://spacenews.com/computer-problem-takes-hubble-offline/

[Orionid]

Hubble returns to normal operations after switch to backup computer
by Jeff Foust — July 17, 2021 [SN]


NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, seen here after the final shuttle servicing mission in 2009, resumed normal operations July 17 after controllers switched to a backup computer. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope returned to science operations July 17 after a hiatus of more than a month as controllers successfully switched the orbiting observatory to a backup payload computer.

Source: https://spacenews.com/hubble-returns-to-normal-operations-after-switch-to-backup-computer/

[Orionid]

Hubble resumes science observations after month-long outage
July 18, 2021 Stephen Clark [SFN]


The Hubble Space Telescope pictured during the final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. Credit: NASA

NASA said Saturday that the Hubble Space Telescope, now running on a backup payload computer, has resumed scientific observations after a failure knocked the aging observatory offline for more than a month.

Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/07/18/hubble-resumes-science-observations-after-month-long-outage/

[Orionid]

Hubble remains in safe mode after latest glitch
by Jeff Foust — November 2, 2021 [SN]


NASA said Nov. 1 that efforts to understand a problem that put the Hubble Space Telescope’s instruments into safe mode a week earlier will take at least another week to resolve. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, offline for more than a week because of an issue with its instruments, is likely to remain out of service for another week as engineers investigate the problem.

Hubble’s science instruments went into a safe mode early Oct. 25 after they issued error codes indicating the loss of “synchronization messages,” which provide timing information used by the instruments. The safe mode stopped scientific operations of the telescope, although the instruments themselves, and the rest of the spacecraft, are in good health.

Source: https://spacenews.com/hubble-remains-in-safe-mode-after-latest-glitch/

The Space Shuttle Payload Delivery module was proposed as part of the DIRECT architecture, to allow Orion to carry payloads originally designed for STS, for ISS assembly or Hubble servicing missions
Also gives an idea of the sort of module likely needed for a Dragon-HST mission

https://x.com/brickmack/status/1609615150511800321

[Orionid]

White House Nixes Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Funds for 2006
SpaceNews Editor January 25, 2005 [SN]

WASHINGTON — The White House has eliminated funding for a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope from its 2006 budget request and directed NASA to focus solely on deorbiting the popular spacecraft at the end of its life, according to government and industry sources.

NASA is debating when and how to announce the change of plans. Sources told Space News that outgoing NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe likely will make the announcement Feb. 7 during the public presentation of the U.S. space agency’s 2006 budget request.
https://spacenews.com/white-house-nixes-hubble-space-telescope-servicing-funds-2006/



Using Hubble, researchers accidentally discover ejected black hole forcing star creation
written by Haygen Warren April 24, 2023 [NSH]

Throughout the universe, supermassive black holes can typically be found at the center of massive galaxies that stretch tens of light years across. However, using Hubble, a team of researchers has discovered a supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its galaxy. The black hole, which is around 20 million times more massive than our Sun, is traveling incredibly fast — so fast that it could travel the distance between Earth and the Moon in just 14 minutes.

What’s more, as the black hole travels through space it is plowing into gas ahead of it. As the black hole compresses the gas, star formation is triggered, and new hot blue stars are created — leaving a 200,000 light-year-long trail of stars behind the black hole. The trail of stars is very bright as it likely houses an extremely high amount of young stars, with the trail’s brightness being nearly half as bright as the black hole’s host galaxy. Nothing like this has ever been observed by scientists, and Hubble’s observations are helping scientists understand the characteristics of black holes and how they affect their surrounding environments.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/04/runaway-black-hole/

Hubble glitch renews talk about private servicing mission
Jeff Foust December 2, 2023 [SN]


NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, seen here after the final shuttle servicing mission in 2009. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — A problem with the Hubble Space Telescope has renewed discussion about whether and how NASA might approve a private mission to reboost and potentially repair the spacecraft. (...)

NASA announced Nov. 29 that Hubble was in a safe mode because of a problem with one of its three operational gyroscopes. That gyro first triggered a safe mode Nov. 19 when it provided what NASA described as faulty readings. Spacecraft controllers restored operations of Hubble, only to see problems again Nov. 21 and 23. (...)

The study, performed under an unfunded Space Act Agreement, was completed earlier this year, but neither NASA nor SpaceX have provided any details about the results of the study or next steps.

Isaacman, in other social media posts, suggested the study concluded a reboost and servicing mission was feasible: “this should be an easy risk/reward decision.” However, he did not disclose details about how the mission would be conducted. (...)
https://spacenews.com/hubble-glitch-renews-talk-about-private-servicing-mission/

I've rarely seen a more detailed and balanced article about space news. The way they quoted Isaacman made him look a bit petty but the rest of the article is quite good. Jared let out some of his frustration here and there and fell prey to everything on social media  remaining out there to be used a little or a lot out of context. The split within NASA is interesting and falls along some predicable lines.

I also did not love how they pulled my quotes from podcasts.  What the article does not capture is the official position of the joint study and hopefully that comes out.  On surface it looks like "billionaire wants to touch Hubble and NASA said hell no", but that is not what happened. There are three positions here, but only one that truly matters:
- My personal opinion about the source of delays, which I have never been shy about stating.
- The personal opinion of those who chimed in late in the process, which I think the article captures well.
- But what really matters is the joint study - Polaris + SpaceX + NASA. The team that performed the technical analysis for ~6 months and arrived at a formal recommendation.

It is unfortunate there is so much discourse over the subject. It is like new space vs. old space, or people who love SpaceX vs. hate SpaceX, incompetent tourist vs. real astronaut. It should really have only been about the mission, because if a mission was planned it would have had resources across all the organizations that participated in the study to ensure success.  It is not like anyone was going to wing it, especially after a joint study was assembled to determine generally how a successful mission could be achieved.

I know a lot of people have memories of the heroic shuttle missions to save Hubble...the long EVA's, Canadarm and the giant gyros. The astronauts did an incredible job keeping Hubble going, but that was then and this is now. You can pack a lot of capabilities in to something the size of an iPhone these days. This was not lost on any of the scientists and engineers that worked on the joint study.

Would it be worth the risk to save Hubble? Many of the telescope systems have failed and most redundancy has been lost. This is why it continues to go offline. Hubble's orbit has decayed significantly and will continue to do so through solar max. It will be coming home earlier than what was represented in the article.  Once it reaches a certain altitude, the prospects of a mission are all but lost. When it does, it will either be uncontrolled or come at a cost to tax payers to launch something robotic to manage it.

Had a mission been flown, and I was happy to fund it, I believe it would have resulted in the development of capabilities beneficial to the future of commercial space and along the way given Hubble a new lease on life.

I acknowledge this is not my telescope to touch and a lot of time has passed from the study till now.  Government priorities change, budgets become tight, regardless of who is funding the mission, it does require contributions of resources from a lot of parties to ensure success.  Regardless of what happens from here, I am glad we all, inclusive of NASA, invested the time to see if this could work. Hubble deserved that effort.

https://x.com/rookisaacman/status/1791845941013569616
https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=1068.msg191347#msg191347

NASA delays decision on Chandra and Hubble cuts
Jeff Foust October 24, 2024 [SN]


The Chandra X-Ray Observatory (above) and Hubble Space Telescope could face budget cuts as NASA deals with overall spending reductions. Credit: NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan

WASHINGTON — NASA has deferred any plans to reduce operations of two major space telescopes as a cost-cutting move until after the agency receives its final appropriations for fiscal year 2025.

At an online town hall session Oct. 23, Mark Clampin, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, said the agency was holding off on any changes in the operations of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope while awaiting Congress to finalize appropriations for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.

“That means we’re taking no further steps forward with Chandra or Hubble at this time,” he said.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-delays-decision-on-chandra-and-hubble-cuts/