NASA/ESA/H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski, A. Koekemoer, R. Windhorst, and Z. Levay

This image uses 16 years of Hubble data– 7,500 images– to catch about 265,000 galaxies.

In the very first maintenance objective to the Hubble Space Telescope, astronauts set up a set of specialized lenses to fix the primary mirror.

NASA

” Theyre very primitive computer systems compared to what remains in your cellular phone,” Hertz told NPR. “The problem is we cant touch it or see it.”

” Hubble is one of NASAs most essential astrophysics missions. Its been operating for over 31 years, and NASA is enthusiastic it will last for many more years,” the spokesperson said.” A computer error led NASA down the wrong course last weekNASA tried, and failed, to reboot the malfunctioning payload computer system on June 14, the day after Hubble went offline.

Ever since, further testing has revealed that the memory issues were a symptom of the real problem– which NASA still hasnt identified.Now the Hubble group believes that the issue is connected to the computers main processing module. NASA stated in a blog site update on Tuesday that the most likely culprit is either the module itself or some interface hardware that helps the module interact with other parts of the telescope.” The team is presently designing tests that will be run in the next few days to try to more isolate the problem and determine a prospective solution,” the NASA blog site stated. If that doesnt work, the Hubble group is prepared to switch to the backup computer system, which was also created in the 1980s and has actually been sitting dormant in orbit for 12 years.

NASA still hasnt figured out what forced its Hubble Space Telescope offline more than a week ago.The telescopes payload computer system unexpectedly stopped working on June 13, sending NASA engineers scrambling to figure out the problem. The telescope has actually gone into a hibernation-like “safe mode” while NASA troubleshoots.The agency has actually made three attempts to get Hubbles computer system working once again– in vain. It would take NASA several days to bring the telescope back to its complete science operations following such a switch.Hubble, which released into orbit around Earth in 1990, is the worlds most effective space telescope.

But Hubble is getting old. None of its parts have actually been upgraded or changed since the last astronaut objective to service the telescope in 2009. In March, a software error also sent out the telescope into safe mode. But in that case, NASA fixed the issue within a week. Now, with this mysterious new glitch, NASA has been having a hard time to get the Earth-orbiting observatory back online for 10 days.But Paul Hertz, NASAs director of astrophysics, informed NPR that the timing can primarily be chalked up to “the inefficiency of attempting to fix something which is orbiting 400 miles over your head rather of in your lab.”” If this computer system remained in the lab, we d be linking screens and evaluating the inputs and outputs all over the place, and would be actually fast to identify it,” he said.

NASA still hasnt figured out what required its Hubble Space Telescope offline more than a week ago.The telescopes payload computer suddenly stopped working on June 13, sending NASA engineers scrambling to figure out the issue. The telescope has actually gone into a hibernation-like “safe mode” while NASA troubleshoots.The agency has actually made three efforts to get Hubbles computer system working again– in vain. If NASA cant repair the concern, the telescope must be able to change to hardware on its backup payload computer system, however that hasnt powered up since astronauts installed it in 2009. It would take NASA a number of days to bring the telescope back to its full science operations following such a switch.Hubble, which introduced into orbit around Earth in 1990, is the worlds most effective area telescope. NASA stated in a blog site upgrade on Tuesday that the most likely perpetrator is either the module itself or some user interface hardware that assists the module interact with other parts of the telescope.