The Hubble Space Telescope was launched by Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. To avoid distortion of the atmosphere, Hubble has a vantage point free of planets, stars, and galaxies, which are more than 13.4 billion light-years away. credit: NASA
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NASA continues to diagnose problems with the payload-carrying computers on the Hubble Space Telescope after completing a series of other tests on June 23 and 24. The computer stopped the payload on June 13 and the spacecraft stopped collecting scientific data. The telescope itself and its scientific instruments remain sound and currently in a safe configuration.
The spacecraft contained two laptop computers, one as a backup, which was housed in the Science Instrument, Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit. There are many devices that make up both payload computers, including but not limited to:
- Central processing unit (CPM), which processes commands that coordinates and controls scientific instruments الأدوات
- Standard interface (STINT), which connects the communication between the CPM computer and other components
- Communication bus containing paths that pass signals and data between devices
- And one active memory unit stores device operational commands. There are three additional modules that serve as backups.
Additional tests carried out on June 23 and 24 involved the first-ever backup computer in space. Tests showed that several of these hardware sets from the main and backup computers experienced the same error – commands to write or read from memory did not work.
As it is highly unlikely that all individual hardware components will experience a problem, the team is now looking at other hardware as a possible culprit, including the Command Unit/Data Science Coordinator (CU/SDF), another module at SI C&DH. The CU formats and sends commands and data to specific destinations, including scientific instruments. The SDF coordinates scientific data from scientific instruments to be sent back to Earth. The team also looked at the power regulator to see if the voltage supplied to the device was not what it should be. The power regulator ensures a constant supply of constant voltage. If the voltage is out of bounds, this can cause real problems.
Over the next week, the team will continue to evaluate the hardware in the C&DH SI unit to determine if something else is causing the problem. If the team determines that the possible cause is the CU/SDF or power regulator, they will recommend switching to the standby CU/SDF and standby power regulator.
Launched in 1990, Hubble has been observing the universe for more than 31 years. They have contributed to some of the most important discoveries of our universe, including the accelerated expansion of the universe, the evolution of galaxies over time, and the first study of the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system. Read more about some of Hubble’s major scientific contributions.
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