The iconic Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is back online after entering ‘safe mode’ after a ‘software bug’.
NASA announced that operations would resume late last week and that the telescope would return to normal scientific operations on Friday.
The agency wrote in a release on Sunday that its Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument was repaired on March 13 around 7pm ET.
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NASA said that after the HST began its recovery process, the WFC3 was discontinued due to a lower-than-normal voltage for its power supply, which eventually resulted in internal instrument protection.
Further analysis revealed that voltage levels in the WFC3 power supply decreased slowly over time.
“The electronics experience colder temperatures when the hardware is turned off in safe mode. This factor, together with the force that pulls the instrument components while they are turned on again, contributed to the small voltage fluctuation that suspended the WFC3 recovery operations,” NASA explained. . “Further detailed analysis indicated that it would be safe to lower the low voltage limit slightly to avoid a suspension in the future, and it would be safe to restore the instrument back to its scientific state.”
Other activities will be done before the observation and further tests this week.
Safe mode is a setting that puts the telescope in a ‘stable configuration that suspends scientific observations’ and places the HST’s solar panels in the direction of the sun to ensure that energy needs are met.
The HST initially went into safe mode unexpectedly on Sunday, March 7th.
The mission operational team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center later identified the software bug as related to the recent improvement of the spacecraft with the goal of helping to compensate for fluctuations from one of its gyroscopes.
The gyroscopes help rotate the HST and attach to new targets by measuring the velocity at which the spacecraft rotates.
“They determined that the enhancement did not have permission to write to a specific location in the computer memory, which caused a problem with the main flight computer and subsequently put the spacecraft into safe mode,” NASA wrote. .
In addition, the team also found that the opening of the opening at the top of the HST could not close automatically. The door is designed as a protection to protect the inside of the spacecraft from sun damage.
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While several off-the-ground missions to close the door failed, the NASA crew was able to determine commands for the HST’s backup engine that indicated motion.
The car is now set as the primary car for the more than thirty year old telescope.