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The Hubble Space Telescope will switch to a new mode of operation aimed at preventing the space observatory from experiencing lapses in its ability to observe space, according to NASA officials.
The legendary telescope, which captured breathtaking images of space for 34 years, traditionally operated using six gyroscopes. Those gyroscopes, or gyroscopes, are part of a system that controls and determines the direction the telescope is pointed, Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said during a news conference Tuesday.
As Hubble moves toward capturing images of exoplanets, galaxies and other celestial phenomena, the gyroscopes measure how fast the telescope is moving so it gets in the right place for the next science observation, Clampin said.
As the telescope aged, the gyroscopes required replacement, and six new gyroscopes were installed during the last Hubble servicing mission, carried out by astronauts aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle in 2009.
Over time, some of the gyroscopes stopped working, but three remained functional, which didn’t change the way the telescope worked—until now.
Erroneous measurements disrupt HST
Over the past six months, one of the three remaining gyroscopes has been returning erroneous data, causing the telescope to enter “safe mode” several times and stop observing space, Clampin said.
The Hubble team was able to reset the gyro from the ground, but those fixes were temporary and the problem was occurring more often, said Patrick Crouse, Hubble Space Telescope project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The telescope entered safe mode on May 24 after another mishap with a problematic gyroscope, and it remains that way, Crouse said.
After careful consideration, the Hubble team decided to operate Hubble with a single gyro, and the second working gyroscope will be kept in reserve for future use, Clampin said.
The team had long considered moving the telescope into single-gyro mode to extend its lifetime after developing the plan more than 20 years ago.
“We believe this is our best approach to supporting Hubble science this decade and into the next, as most observations in space will be completely unaffected by this change,” Clampin said.
HST operated in dual-gyro mode from 2005 to 2009 and briefly in single-gyro mode in 2008 without impacting the quality of science observations, the agency says.
The future of Hubble observations
Change doesn’t come without limitations, Crouse said.
The telescope will need more time to move and focus on the objects it observes, reducing its efficiency and flexibility. It also won’t be able to track moving objects that are closer to Earth than Mars, but historically Hubble has rarely observed such targets, Crouse said.
Now the team will reconfigure both the telescope and the ground-based system that sends information to HST. The goal is to restore HST by mid-June for routine observations.
Previously, there was a feasibility study to assess how commercial partners could help get the Hubble into a higher orbit to give the telescope a longer operating time so that the Earth’s atmosphere does not pull it down for a controlled return in the 2030s. The agency is considering the risks and requirements of such a maneuver, but is not moving forward with any plans for a “reboost” at this time, Clampin said.
Hubble is expected to be operational by the mid-2030s, and its cosmic observations will complement the work of the James Webb Space Telescope and future observatories that have not yet been launched, Clampin said.
“We don’t see Hubble being on its last legs,” Crouse said, “and we think it’s a very capable observatory.”
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