Hubble, during a 1999 servicing mission. Image credit: NASA/JSC.

By Brooke Edwards, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990 in the Space Shuttle Discovery’s payload bay.  The telescope then was deployed into its orbital home 340 miles above the earth. Many obstacles and several service visits from astronauts ensued. Still, Hubble managed to provide us with decades of beautiful images of our universe.

Advertisement for Honor Onekama Building Supply. Family owned since 1963. Knowledge. Service, Integrity. Here to help you with your hardware and building projects. Call 231-889-3456. Located at 4847 Main Street, Onekama. Click on this ad to be taken to the website.Advertisement for Louisa Loveridge Gallas's book called The WIzards Dream: A Universal Winter's Tale. Original wood cut illustrations by Sydney Replogle. A red ribbon across the top of the ad has the words: Finalist: Eric Hoffer Foundation Literary Award. There is a testimonial by nationally known singer-songwriter and recording artist Claudia Schmidt that says: Louisa introduces us to the wizard who lives in each of us...whose journey through his own dark time is a reminder of distress, change and renewal during the holidays, often a time of confusion and wonder. There is a cover of the book on one side of the ad with a gold seal that says Finalist, Eric Hoffer Literary Award and on the other side of the ad is a black and white photo of the author wearing an artsy looking handmade hat, beneath it her smiling eyes behind a pair of glasses. Wisps of her bangs appear beneath the hat. A yellow ribbon at the bottom of the ad says: Available at The Book Store, Frankfort; the Oliver Art Center Gift Shop; Patina; and other local shops and holiday festivals.Filer Credit Union advertisement says member focused, community based. Join now! Save, borrow, invest, business. website is filercu.com. click here to be taken to the website. In the bottom left corner is the logo of a drawing of evergreen trees with a gull overhead and the Manistee breakwater pier in the background. Equal opportunity lender.

A little more than 30 years ago, we could only imagine what distant galaxies look like. Thanks to Hubble, we now have stunning digital images.  These infrared, ultraviolet and visible light images have changed our understanding of space. Deep-field images have provided us with a better estimation of the age of our universe.

This stunning image by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy NGC 5643 in the constellation of Lupus (The Wolf). NGC 5643 is about 60 million light-years from Earth. Photo courtesy of NASA/ESA.

When the Space Shuttle was retired in 2009, NASA had no way to ferry astronauts to the telescope to service it. Today, no spacecraft possesses the robotic arm manipulator (Canadarm) and payload bay that made the Space Shuttle the perfect service vehicle. Without them, there can be no plan to repair or update Hubble. As with all untended technology, the hardware onboard the telescope will one day run its course and cease functioning.

On June 13, for unknown reasons, Hubble’s payload computer stopped collecting science data. In response, NASA began to run a series of tests from the ground to diagnose the problem. This included switching on the telescope’s backup payload computer for the first time since it was placed in orbit. Tests run June 23-24 showed the same result on both computers, yet the issue was not solved. It is suspected the trouble may lie in either the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF), which sends data back to Earth, or in the telescope’s power supply. Whatever the cause, it is a hard reminder that Hubble’s days are limited.

The space telescope’s legacy of discovery will continue with the James Webb Space Telescope, which is planned for launch later this year. Thank you, Hubble team, for opening our eyes to the vastness of our universe.

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/operations-underway-to-restore-payload-computer-on-nasas-hubble-space-telescope

Updated July 16, 2021: According to ScienceMag.org, the Hubble Space Telescope is once again sending data.

Read more stories by Brooke Edwards HERE.

Write A Comment