NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been orbiting the earth for over 30 years – and it shows its age. This weekend it hit an obstacle from which it has yet to emerge.
On Sunday the NASA Hubble Twitter account posted news the craft arrived in safe mode around 4 p.m. Here on earth, missionary scientists scrambled to put our eye in the air again.
A NASA spokesman said in response to a question Reverse:
‘The Hubble Space Telescope is in good condition but remains in safe mode as a precautionary measure, while the team fully understands the error on Sunday and the accompanying response to safe mode. The team is working to get Hubble back to scientific operations as soon as possible. ”
No details are currently available on when the mission may be fully operational again, but NASA’s comments are encouraging for stargazing fans of the telescope.
What is the safe mode for the Hubble Telescope?
Safe mode on Hubble is about the same as what happens to your home computer when it goes into sleep mode unexpectedly: a software problem causes the machine to operate only at basic operations. This means that although Hubble is still in contact with NASA, it is unable to function normally. Fortunately for NASA ground personnel, there currently appear to be no hardware issues.
This is good news: Hubble is about 330 km above the earth, so the maintenance work is not exactly simple, but it has been done before.
Hubble was launched in 1990 aboard the Discovery spacecraft. The telescope orbits at a distance of 333-336 miles above the earth, depending on the point in its orbit.
This orbit is specifically selected as the telescope could is served by astronauts. And it was: since its launch, it has received a series of upgrades – first in 1993 to repair a defective mirror that impairs its ability to see properly, and then four more times to do other essential hardware upgrades.
Can the Hubble Telescope be repaired?
The last shuttle was in 2011. Since then, NASA has not introduced any other way to send astronauts to physically maintain the aging telescope. This means that any problems can now be the death of the iconic instrument: the telescope may soon hit a point in its lifetime when it is no longer in operation.
It does have a sequel: the James Webb Space Telescope has been an expected follow-up mission for years. This new observatory has faced a series of delays, and it remains on the ground for the time being. It is currently being launched in October 2021.
Unlike Hubble, James Webb’s space telescope cannot be operated by astronauts, as it will be placed in orbit out of reach of any current NASA aircraft.