The Hubble telescope has no longer communicated with the Earth for a month

Now NASA has identified the fault that kept it off for over a month and is trying to repair it with a rather risky maneuver

(Image: Nasa) For over a month the Hubble telescope, the very powerful orbiting instrument launched by NASA over thirty years ago, it no longer communicates with the Earth. On June 13, one of its main computers stopped working. Since then, experts from the US space agency have conducted several diagnostic tests and analyzed pre-failure data to try to understand the source of the problem.

The verdict came on Wednesday: it appears that the malfunction is attributable to a problem with a faulty power regulator. Serious, but not very serious, since the telescope has another regulator on board, which in the next few days will be turned on to try to restore normal operation of the telescope. A maneuver that does, of course, involve some risk, since most of Hubble's hardware is now over thirty years old.

“I think it will work,” commented optimist Paul Hertz, director of the astrophysics division of NASA. But he specified: “We cannot take it for granted. We almost certainly know that the cause of the problem is related to Hubble's advanced age. One day, some component will break for which we don't have a backup. And that, most likely, will be the end of the Hubble mission ”.

Hubble's main computer, a 1980s machine that controls and monitors all of the telescope's scientific instruments, suddenly stopped working a month ago. The computer was turned off by a safety device on the power control unit (the Pcu, Power control unit), perhaps due to a voltage problem in the Pcu itself or a failure in the safety device. Fortunately, almost every component of Hubble has a spare twin pre-installed on board just to deal with faults like this.

The problem, in this case, is that the PCU is connected to many components of a another equally important unit, the Si C & Dh (Science instrument Command & Data handling): before replacing it with its twin it will therefore be necessary to disconnect all these components, and then reconnect them again. And each of these maneuvers has its own risk load, regardless of the fact that, once we switch to the spare part, we will no longer have a backup in case of further failures. “We cannot see the telescope, nor operate directly on it - commented Hertz -. We can only send commands remotely and hope that everything goes as it should. We cannot afford to accidentally deactivate the radio receiver, or swap two batteries that are not yet ready for exchange. We cannot allow something to break inadvertently. "

The procedure was tried several times before final approval. The ground team conducted simulations with a computer that mimics the operation of Hubble's, and NASA conducted two reviews of the entire process. Also because, at least in this case, there is no race against time: "I told the team that there is no rush", concludes Hertz: "The most important thing is to get Hubble back to work. Don't do it as soon as possible ”.


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