The Hubble Space Telescope was launched by the space shuttle bus Discovery on April 24, 1990. Avoiding distortions of the atmosphere, Hubble has an unblocked view peering to stars, galaxies, and worlds, some more than 13.4 billion light-years away. Credit: NASA
NASA is continuing to diagnose an issue with the payload computer system on the Hubble Space Telescope after finishing another set of tests on June 23 and 24. The payload computer system halted on June 13 and the spacecraft stopped collecting science information. The telescope itself and its science instruments remain in excellent health and are presently in a safe setup.
The spacecraft has 2 payload computer systems, one of which serves as a backup, that are located on the Science Instrument and Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH) system. There are numerous pieces of hardware that make up both payload computers, consisting of but not restricted to:
Since it is highly unlikely that all specific hardware elements have a problem, the group is now looking at other hardware as the possible offender, consisting of the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF), another module on the SI C&DH. The CU formats and sends out data and commands to specific destinations, consisting of the science instruments. The SDF formats the science data from the science instruments for transmission to the ground.
Over the next week, the team will continue to assess hardware on the SI C&DH system to recognize if something else might be causing the problem. They will suggest changing to the backup CU/SDF module and the backup power regulator if the team figures out the power or the cu/sdf regulator is the most likely cause.
Launched in 1990, Hubble has been observing the universe for over 31 years. It has actually contributed to some of the most substantial discoveries of our universes, consisting of the speeding up growth of the universe, the advancement of galaxies over time, and the first climatic research studies of worlds beyond our planetary system. Learn more about a few of Hubbles crucial scientific contributions..
Additional tests performed on June 23 and 24 included switching on the backup computer for the very first time in area. The tests showed that many combinations of these hardware pieces from both the main and backup payload computer all experienced the very same error– commands to write into or read from memory were not effective.
a Central Processing Module (CPM), which processes the commands that collaborate and control the science instruments
a Standard Interface (STINT), which bridges interactions in between the computers CPM and other elements
an interactions bus, which consists of lines that pass signals and data in between hardware
and one active memory module, which shops operational commands to the instruments. There are three extra modules which serve as backups.
The Hubble Space Telescope was introduced by the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Preventing distortions of the atmosphere, Hubble has an unobstructed view peering to stars, worlds, and galaxies, some more than 13.4 billion light-years away. NASA is continuing to diagnose a problem with the payload computer on the Hubble Space Telescope after completing another set of tests on June 23 and 24. Launched in 1990, Hubble has been observing the universe for over 31 years.
