Hubble Suffers Critical Failure
Published on Sep 29, 2008 at 2:59 pm.
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Filed under space telescopes.
The aging Hubble Space Telescope has suffered one of its worst failures since launch. This weekend, the Science Data Formatter suffered an irrecoverable failure on one side. It cannot be fixed by uploading new software. It is dead. It must be replaced. This effectively makes the Hubble useless unless some workaround can be found. Fortunately, when possible NASA builds redundancy of major components into every mission. But, the backup system for this formatter has been sitting around unused for nearly two decades. Will it work? If it works, will it, too, fail? If so, then the Hubble is rendered useless.
So, why doesn’t NASA just throw the switch to use the backup system? Well, this is one of the more critical parts of Hubble’s system, so switching to the backup system is not a matter of just throwing a switch. Besides, with the primary system failing, and only one backup, we need to be very careful making the transition so as not to risk additional failure. It may take a week to make the transition, and then we’ll know if Hubble will be able to continue its work or not.
In the mean time, though, NASA has postponed the servicing mission set for mid October. The Atlantis has been sitting at the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A as final preparations were made for launch. Recently, Endeavour was rolled out to Launch Pad 39B as it, too, was prepared for launch, but to the International Space Station, rather than to Hubble. In the event that Atlantis is damaged and unable return safely to Earth, Endeavour could be used to rescue the stranded Atlantis astronauts. This makes the first time in about seven years that two Space Shuttles have sat at their launch pads at the same time. Originally, the Kennedy Space Center’s plans had called for four launch pads. The original A and B pads were never constructed. The pads originally designated C and D were built and called A and B. At one time, NASA envisioned that spaceflight may be so routine as to have a launch once or twice a week, so they would need to have multiple launch pads. Even with launches as infrequent as they are, they have on several occasions, all the way back to Apollo days, had more than one pad in use at a time.
Until NASA knows the extent of Hubble’s plight, it doesn’t make sense to launch the servicing mission. There may be a need for astronauts to replace the failed system. But, that is not something that you just load onto the spacecraft and tell the astronauts to fix. They need specialized training in how to access and replace various components aboard Hubble. So, that means that the servicing mission might not be flown until early next year at the earliest. Right now, I don’t know much more than this about what is going to happen. NASA will have a special news conference in about two hours with more information.
-Astroprof
Images courtesy NASA, Lockheed Martin
Astroprof’s Page » Hubble side B given the go-ahead on October 15, 2008 at 2:24 pm: 1
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