NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is still offline after it shut down last week. The team behind the big space observatory tried to fix it but failed to find what caused the computer issue in the system.
Hubble Space Telescope Remains on Standstill Despite NASA's Fixing Attempts
According to MSN's report on Tuesday, June 22, NASA has still struggled to address the computer glitch that happened in the latest report.
Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been used for many astronomical findings including the appearance of celestial bodies, the death of stars, as well as planetary alignments, and the movements of interstellar objects in space.
In addition, astronomers were able to measure the age of the universe through the images provided by the huge telescope. At the time, it searched for multiple galaxies which are over 13.4 billion light-years away from our planet.
On June 13, the payload computer of NASA's Hubble Telescope suddenly shut down. For some reason, the technical team has been wondering about the possible error that could happen to its controlling system. Its importance for the space agency is unmatched since the computer is assigned for the entire processing and monitoring of the instruments inside the spacecraft.
To test the problem, the engineers from NASA ran an analysis of the telescope. However, they only failed to assess the potential lapses and decided to restart the engine on the following day, June 14.
The initial finding brought a conclusion that its system module could be gradually depleting. To solve this, the Hubble Space team tried switching the modules on the telescope. Unfortunately, the new module did not work when a command was prompted on its end.
For another troubleshooting trial, the team tested the current module on Thursday, June 17. Both attempts that day were not enough to solve the computer troubles in the Hubble Space Telescope. It remained offline at the moment.
NASA said on Friday, June 18, that it would continue the collection of system data to alleviate the problem. Now, the space telescope has been running in "safe mode." The team hopes that for the next test, the telescope will be fixed already.
Read Also: Hubble Space Telescope Spots Image of Blackhole-Lit Spiral Galaxy
Hubble Space Telescope is Not Stranger to Fixes in the Last Three Decades
In March, the Hubble Space Telescope entered hibernation mode after it suffered from a computer glitch. It's not the first time that a software issue wrecked it. After only a week, NASA has managed to address the problem, NASA wrote on its page.
In 2009, the space mission involving Hubble handled the problems on the new computer. The team has entirely replaced the parts of the telescope such as camera, insulation, computer, spectrograph, and batteries.
What they can do at the moment is to change the outdated parts of the telescope. This would replenish the system so it could work again as planned.
NASA, in collaboration with ESA, will launch the James Webb Space Telescope in November. Previously, it would be released on October 31, but delays have come on the way brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and two other causes.
Read also: 30 Years of Capturing Space: NASA Releases New Images Caught by the Hubble Space Telescope
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Written by Joseph Henry
