NASA board to discuss Hubble fix (AP/CNN) {main camera working again!?}

[eppur_se_muova]

Telescope should be working by July 3

Wednesday, June 28, 2006; Posted: 10:05 a.m. EDT (14:05 GMT)

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- The Hubble Space Telescope's main camera should be back on line July 3 without any loss of performance, the U.S. space agency said Tuesday.

A NASA board will meet Thursday at the Goddard Space Flight Center to determine how to deal with power problems that have shut down the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Engineers "anticipate instrument observations will resume no earlier than July 3, with no degradation to performance," the NASA statement said.

Ed Ruitberg, deputy associate director of the Astrophysics Division at Goddard, said NASA engineers believe they are "very close to fully understanding the issue experienced with the camera and we are going to resolve it."

"However, before we proceed with any actions, we want to have a review board meeting to assess both the troubleshooting and the proposed solution," Ruitberg said.

Ground controllers received indications June 19 that voltage readings on the camera's power supply were outside of their acceptable range, causing the camera to shut down. The camera was taken off line while the problem is being studied, although other instruments on board the orbiting observatory continue to function.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/06/28/hubble.camera.ap/index.html

[shireen]

1. Hubble always bounces back

there are some really really good people working the problem

[NNadir]

2. To me, Hubble is the pinnacle of the space program.

I'm a big fan of the planetary robots too, but Hubble is the cat's meow.

It really is the only major scientific justification for the manned space program in my view. Others may disagree, but I can't think of another thing done by humans in space that robots couldn't have done better and cheaper. Although the Hubble is a robot, it is a robot that has required human contact to be at its best.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. UPDATE: Hubble now working again

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2365560&mesg_id=2365560

They beat the 3 July date, obviously. DMM posted this while I was taking an afternoon nap that day.:)