After almost a month of troubleshooting, NASA engineers believe they have finally figured out the cause behind the computer glitch that has halted all scientific operations of the Hubble Space Telescope. A glitch in the payload computer forced engineers to stop all scientific research on June 13.
It was followed by rigorous troubleshooting to find the cause. But finally, there’s some relief. The team has managed to find the possible cause of the issue, as per a NASA update. The team says that they will be trying to repair the problem soon.
Low voltage is the reason
NASA says the problem lies within the telescope’s Power Control Unit (PCU), which is placed in the payload computer and makes sure that all parts of the hardware receive a steady stream of power. Voltage dropped below five volts, making a secondary protection circuit to instruct the payload computer to halt all operations.
“The team’s analysis suggests that either the voltage level from the regulator is outside of acceptable levels (thereby tripping the secondary protection circuit), or the secondary protection circuit has degraded over time and is stuck in this inhibit state,” NASA’s update reads.
Thankfully, the team is able to switch back to a backup computer that also has a backup PCU. The team will soon start the process, which might take a few days to complete. A similar issue hit the telescope’s Command Unit back in 2009 and was resolved by a servicing mission.
Hubble to be back in action?
Back then, astronauts were able to replace the broken hardware manually rather than relying on switching to backup systems. Since there’s no Space Shuttle to take up servicing missions of the telescope, the team will have to hope to solve the issue remotely.
Hubble has been operational for over 30 years and has managed to capture many striking images of the cosmos. Its observations have allowed astronomers to learn more about other planets in the universe. It will soon be accompanied by the James Webb Space Telescope, which will try to find habitable planets. It will also gather data on the origins of the universe and Earth.
