It will be several weeks before all the steps needed to take the "safe mode" limiting instructions are removed from other science instruments aboard Hubble. These instructions issue when synchronization errors are detected, to protect the instruments.
And it will mean that -- in a worst case scenario -- Hubble could fail to respond to Earth based commands, if a "blue screen of death" type event occurs in more than a few of the instruments. But soon enough, the next-gen space telescope -- the name of which I no longer mention, will be up, headed to its L2 (H/T for the correction, and courtesy Anon., below!)
. . .During the past week, the Hubble team has identified near-term changes that could be made to how the instruments monitor and respond to missed synchronization messages, as well as to how the payload computer monitors the instruments. This would allow science operations to continue even if several missed messages occur. The team has also continued analyzing the instrument flight software to verify that all possible solutions would be safe for the instruments.
This upcoming week, the team will begin to determine the order to recover the remaining instruments, including schedules for changing the instrument parameters before testing and developing the procedures. They also will test these changes to ensure they work as planned while continuing to isolate the root cause of the error.
The team expects it will take several weeks to complete these activities for the first instrument. The team has not yet determined which instrument would receive these changes first. In the meantime, they will start taking steps to recover Wide Field Camera 3 with no new changes next week, as was done with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, as an interim and low-risk step toward resuming normal science operations. . . .
No matter how it turns out now, for Hubble -- it has been. . . a great ride -- so with these reports, we are rerunning some of our older graphics, on Hubble topics. Smile. . . .
नमस्ते
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteI've followed and appreciated your blog for years, but usually have nothing to add. Today I wanted to share a small edit. The new telescope will orbit L2, not L1. NASA's website has an excellent explainer and animation (as usual), although the URL does still use the name. https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html
Thanks!
Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much -- and I am making the change now. . .
Well-met -- and do stop back!
Namaste. . . .