SAN FRANCISCO, iNews.id – NASA has announced they are working to bring telescope outer space Hubble fully online and back to normal science operation. The space agency confirmed the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument was found on Sunday, November 21.
NASA plans to make the first scientific observations using the restored Wide Field Camera 3 today, November 23. The camera restored over the weekend is the second Hubble instrument discovered since the space telescope went into safe mode on October 23, and observations were suspended on October 25.
The first major instrument discovered was the Advanced Camera for Surveys, chosen because NASA believed it would have as few problems as possible if additional sync messages were lost. It was this loss of sync messages that put the telescope into safe mode on October 25.
The Wide Field Camera 3 was chosen for recovery ahead of other instruments aboard Hubble because it is the most widely used instrument in the telescope, as quoted by Slash Gears.
The camera accounts for more than a third of the observation time. As part of the recovery effort, NASA engineers prepared changes to the camera’s operating parameters to allow it to survive multiple missed sync messages while maintaining normal operation. Engineers try to harden the instruments to allow them to continue working in case additional sync messages are missed in the future.
However, before applying the new parameters to the Wide Field Camera 3, they are tested on a ground simulator and will first be applied to the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph. The changes will be applied to the far ultraviolet detector first as it is very sensitive. NASA engineers have confirmed that testing and implementing the changes will take several weeks.
No additional missing messages have been recorded since NASA began monitoring the issue on November 1. However, the engineering team is taking steps to keep the hardware on Hubble safe in case the sync message is lost in the future, as quoted from Slash Gears.
Editor: Dini Listiyani
