Hubble telescope began to "crumble." Another space observatory chamber broke

One of the most productive scientificinstruments of the Hubble Space Telescope out of order. At the moment, mission engineers are trying to understand the causes of the incident, according to the portal Space.com. According to a source referring to the published NASA data, the Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument of the telescope failed on February 28, when an unexpected error occurred during an ordinary computer procedure.

"This error showed that the softwareThe camera was loaded incorrectly. Now the team is working on finding the cause of the malfunction, after detecting which a plan will be drawn up to restore the camera’s operability, ”NASA official website said in an update on Friday (March 1) in the evening, adding that the agency’s team of engineers, programmers and dispatchers is studying this malfunction.

The telescope can still explore the universe. The Space Observatory has three more instruments on its board — Wide Camera 3, Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph — all are in working condition, which is quite surprising given the age of the telescope itself.

Advanced Camera for Surveys worked withtelescope nearly 17 years. It is a tool operating in the visible range of the spectrum. It was this tool that helped to make some of the highest quality images of the Universe, obtained using this space telescope. The camera was mounted on a telescope in March 2002 by astronauts of a special mission to service the space observatory. Problems arose with it in 2007. As a result of the power surge, it turned off, but was later restored by another service team of astronauts in 2009, during the NASA STS-125 mission, which was the last mission for maintaining the space telescope.

Recently, the Hubble has been “sick” several times. For example, last year one of the gyroscopes of the apparatus broke down, which it uses for correct orientation in space. As a result, all the scientific activities of the space observatory had to be suspended until October, until the engineers found a way to get out of the situation.

This January, Wide-Angle 3spontaneously rebooted after the computer noticed power surges in the readings. As it turned out later, the voltage was fine - the problem lay in the telemetry errors.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a jointthe project of the space agency NASA and the European Space Agency. It was launched into space in April 1990. Initially, the estimated operating time of the device was 15 years. To date, the mission of the apparatus lasts almost twice as long as the expected period.

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