Hubble camera out of action
30 Jan 2007 by Evoluted New Media
An electrical fault has caused the primary camera in the Hubble Space Telescope to fail – leading to some permanent loss of function.
An electrical fault has caused the primary camera in the Hubble Space Telescope to fail – leading to some permanent loss of function.
NASA officials have said that an electrical short in the backup system for Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) pushed the space telescope into a protective “safe mode” over the weekend (27 Jan).
NASA’s Preston Burch, Hubble program manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Maryland said: “Obviously, we are very disappointed by this latest event because of the popularity of the ACS instrument with astronomers.”
It was Hubble’s ACS camera’s wide field channel, for example, that allowed astronomers to generate Hubble’s Ultra Deep Field – the deepest view into the universe to date.
It is thought that only one-third of the camera's functions were likely to be restored. “We’re not optimistic at all that those [functions] will be restored,” said David Leckrone, NASA’s senior project scientist for Hubble at the GSFC. “The saving grace here is that we have a superb new wide field camera coming along that was originally designed, in fact, to be a back up for ACS in case ACS failed. It was designed to work in tandem with ACS if it was full alive.”
That new camera – known as Wide Field Camera 3 – is due to be installed at Hubble during NASA’s last space shuttle flight to the observatory in September 2008.
Hubble engineers hope they will be able to restore partial ACS science capability with its third feature – the Solar Blind channel used recently to study auroras on Jupiter and Saturn – by February to aid NASA’s New Horizons mission, which is due to make a close flyby of Jupiter on 28 February.
