Author Topic: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates  (Read 239594 times)

Offline russianhalo117

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #260 on: 10/08/2018 10:59 pm »
What happened to the structure used in the Shuttle payload bay that the Hubble was launched up with?
servicing and launch support hardware is for the majority stored or on display by the Smithsonian. Some hardware remains at Goddard. the actual launch mechanism for Hubble is the trunnion pin and key system used by STS. the current solar panels are fixed and cannot be retracted or jettisoned explosively. A PGT and some cable disconnect tools are required to remove them.

Offline Sam Ho

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #261 on: 10/08/2018 11:13 pm »
Aren't there two types of gyros?  Motion and rate?  Which is this one?
Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) and they each control fine guidance sensors. The others are Rate Gyro Assembly (RGA) and control rate sensors assemblies for inertial navigation

As for HST's size only combined gyros are need and are called simply just Reaction Wheels. As for ISS CMG's must operate separately from RGA's for them to serve a spacecraft mass that size correctly without burning out its motors for each axis.
Hubble's Pointing Control Subsystem has four reaction wheels and six rate-sensing gyros (packed as three Rate Sensor Units with two gyros each).  The gyros are the ones which tend to fail after a while.  The belief is that the fine wires that provide power to the gyro oxidize over time and break.

There are also three additional gyros in the Retrieval Mode Gyro Assembly, but these are dedicated for use during safemode, and do not have the accuracy needed for science operations.

There's a nice description of all this in Chapter 5 of the Media Guide for SM-3A:
http://hubble.nasa.gov/a_pdf/news/SM3A-MediaGuide.pdf

Offline Zed_Noir

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #262 on: 10/09/2018 09:21 am »
.

Could HST rescue possibly be a job for BFS?
Sure.
If we weit for BFS-crew, and BFSpacesuit, getting to hubble is pretty easy.
They can then 'just' do a servicing mission and replace the gyros.
(Or even fetch the gyros, repair, put them back).
The questions are the cost of spinning up production for new gyros, and the fact the telescope is really quite old.
There are other subsystems that are seriously showing their age, to the point that it might be sensible if everything was ideal to lift more instruments.

Automated approaches likely could be done some 3-4 years earlier, depending - and in principle BFS could recover it entire, for repair on earth.

Does any hardware remain on the ground in flight condition?

Maybe someone can ask the folks at Hawthorne a price estimate for replacement hardware for the HST. They seem to make less costly hardware quicker then everyone else.

Offline speedevil

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #263 on: 10/09/2018 09:30 am »
Maybe someone can ask the folks at Hawthorne a price estimate for replacement hardware for the HST. They seem to make less costly hardware quicker then everyone else.
That is, if nothing else, a political non-starter.
Almost every single bit of NASA and the existing contractors would be strongly lobbying against such a thing, as if they pull it off, or appear likely to pull it off, it has a catastrophic impact on funding.
Launching flight hardware made by 'the usual suspects' lets people keep to the internal narrative that SpaceX is good at rockets, and NASA plays a vital and irreplaceable role in complex space hardware. It also allows a slower transition between business as usual and the future.
(I agree with the vital, not so much the irreplacable part)

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #264 on: 10/09/2018 10:28 am »
Maybe someone can ask the folks at Hawthorne a price estimate for replacement hardware for the HST. They seem to make less costly hardware quicker then everyone else.

How is a company that, making as good rockets as it might, has never built an observation spacecraft, let alone a cutting-edge scientific one, and whose main business is indeed reusable launch vehicles and cargo freighters (with the possible mid-term addition of LEO comsats) proposed as a valid provider of "replacements" for HST no less? Plus rendezvousing with the telescope and installing them, of course.

Please stop polluting each and every thread with half-cooked "ideas" of how SpaceX would be able to do everything faster, cheaper and better, including cooking stews, saving whales and building CMGs. This is an UPDATE thread in the Space Science section of the forum, not "Creative outsourcing to Hawthorne of just about anything, to be launched on a boundless BFR".

Offline Zed_Noir

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #265 on: 10/09/2018 11:02 am »
Maybe someone can ask the folks at Hawthorne a price estimate for replacement hardware for the HST. They seem to make less costly hardware quicker then everyone else.
That is, if nothing else, a political non-starter.
Almost every single bit of NASA and the existing contractors would be strongly lobbying against such a thing, as if they pull it off, or appear likely to pull it off, it has a catastrophic impact on funding.
Launching flight hardware made by 'the usual suspects' lets people keep to the internal narrative that SpaceX is good at rockets, and NASA plays a vital and irreplaceable role in complex space hardware. It also allows a slower transition between business as usual and the future.
(I agree with the vital, not so much the irreplacable part)

Good point on the idea being bad politically.

Offline Dizzy_RHESSI

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #266 on: 10/09/2018 12:49 pm »
I'm not up on the details, but wouldn't an obvious way to fix Hubble be to launch WFIRST?

It's nowhere near ready though.

Yeah, I know, but is there much that Hubble can do that WFIRST can't?  Same aperture, same resolving power (I think?) same, seeing (perfect), just much higher productivity (dramatically wider field of view).  And maybe Hubble can be nursed along for a few more years like Keppler was (different approach, obviously) until the gap to WFIRST could be reduced a good bit.

Wouldn't that make more sense than a rescue mission?

WFIRST is incapable of a lot of what Hubble does, if not most of it. No ultraviolet, which has always been a relatively unique feature of HST. The wide field instrument is not optimized for visible light either, it will have lower angular resolution because of this. The wide field instrument will also carry very few filters, just  7 in total. HST WFC3 alone has 80. All of these filters will be broadband which means medium and narrowband imaging is gone. There will only be a single visible filter. The coronagraph (if it even flies at all) will be a new capability, HST's coronagraphs are quite low performance.

WFIRST will be a big advance in some ways but it really doesn't have much common with HST in terms of capability. It would be a huge leap over WFC3/IR, but that is only 1 instrument which currently only takes up 1/3 of HST's time. WFIRST was not really designed to be a general purpose observatory.

Offline Star One

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #267 on: 10/09/2018 08:26 pm »
Hubble in Safe Mode as Gyro Issues are Diagnosed

NASA is working to resume science operations of the Hubble Space Telescope after the spacecraft entered safe mode on Friday, October 5, shortly after 6:00 p.m. EDT. Hubble’s instruments still are fully operational and are expected to produce excellent science for years to come.

Hubble entered safe mode after one of the three gyroscopes (gyros) actively being used to point and steady the telescope failed. Safe mode puts the telescope into a stable configuration until ground control can correct the issue and return the mission to normal operation.

Built with multiple redundancies, Hubble had six new gyros installed during Servicing Mission-4 in 2009. Hubble usually uses three gyros at a time for maximum efficiency, but can continue to make scientific observations with just one.

The gyro that failed had been exhibiting end-of-life behavior for approximately a year, and its failure was not unexpected; two other gyros of the same type had already failed. The remaining three gyros available for use are technically enhanced and therefore expected to have significantly longer operational lives.

Two of those enhanced gyros are currently running. Upon powering on the third enhanced gyro that had been held in reserve, analysis of spacecraft telemetry indicated that it was not performing at the level required for operations. As a result, Hubble remains in safe mode. Staff at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute are currently performing analyses and tests to determine what options are available to recover the gyro to operational performance.

Science operations with Hubble have been suspended while NASA investigates the anomaly. An Anomaly Review Board, including experts from the Hubble team and industry familiar with the design and performance of this type of gyro, is being formed to investigate this issue and develop the recovery plan. If the outcome of this investigation results in recovery of the malfunctioning gyro, Hubble will resume science operations in its standard three-gyro configuration.

If the outcome indicates that the gyro is not usable, Hubble will resume science operations in an already defined “reduced-gyro” mode that uses only one gyro. While reduced-gyro mode offers less sky coverage at any particular time, there is relatively limited impact on the overall scientific capabilities.

For more information about Hubble, visit:

www.nasa.gov/hubble
« Last Edit: 10/09/2018 08:32 pm by Star One »

Offline noogie

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #268 on: 10/10/2018 04:50 am »
The fact that the telescope has old, largely incompatible data systems could make it an interesting test of ASAT capabilities and limitations.
After all you could use the same principles and lessons learned to take over an an enemy satellite if you could send a robotic mission that could get into the data system of the telescope and take over the gyroscopic functions.
« Last Edit: 10/10/2018 09:38 am by noogie »

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #269 on: 10/22/2018 08:17 pm »
Quote
NASA makes progress on fixing Hubble gyro
by Jeff Foust — October 22, 2018

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Engineers have made progress correcting a faulty gyro on the Hubble Space Telescope, making NASA optimistic the space telescope can resume normal operations in the near future.

https://spacenews.com/nasa-makes-progress-on-fixing-hubble-gyro/

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #270 on: 10/22/2018 08:41 pm »
Quote
Oct 22, 2018
Hubble Moving Closer to Normal Science Operations

NASA took great strides last week to press into service a Hubble Space Telescope backup gyroscope (gyro) that was incorrectly returning extremely high rotation rates. The backup gyro was turned on after the spacecraft entered safe mode due to a failed gyro on Friday, Oct. 5. The rotation rates produced by the backup gyro have since reduced and are now within an expected range. Additional tests will be performed to ensure Hubble can return to science operations with this gyro.

A gyro is a device that measures the speed at which the spacecraft is turning, and is needed to help Hubble turn and lock on to new targets.

A wheel inside the gyro spins at a constant rate of 19,200 revolutions per minute. This wheel is mounted in a sealed cylinder, called a float, which is suspended in a thick fluid. Electricity is carried to the motor by thin wires, approximately the size of a human hair, that are immersed in the fluid. Electronics within the gyro detect very small movements of the axis of the wheel and communicate this information to Hubble’s central computer. These gyros have two modes — high and low. High mode is a coarse mode used to measure large rotation rates when the spacecraft turns across the sky from one target to the next. Low mode is a precision mode used to measure finer rotations when the spacecraft locks onto a target and needs to stay very still.

In an attempt to correct the erroneously high rates produced by the backup gyro, the Hubble operations team executed a running restart of the gyro on Oct. 16. This procedure turned the gyro off for one second, and then restarted it before the wheel spun down. The intention was to clear any faults that may have occurred during startup on Oct. 6, after the gyro had been off for more than 7.5 years. However, the resulting data showed no improvement in the gyro’s performance.

On Oct. 18, the Hubble operations team commanded a series of spacecraft maneuvers, or turns, in opposite directions to attempt to clear any blockage that may have caused the float to be off-center and produce the exceedingly high rates. During each maneuver, the gyro was switched from high mode to low mode to dislodge any blockage that may have accumulated around the float.

Following the Oct. 18 maneuvers, the team noticed a significant reduction in the high rates, allowing rates to be measured in low mode for brief periods of time. On Oct. 19, the operations team commanded Hubble to perform additional maneuvers and gyro mode switches, which appear to have cleared the issue. Gyro rates now look normal in both high and low mode. 

Hubble then executed additional maneuvers to make sure that the gyro remained stable within operational limits as the spacecraft moved. The team saw no problems and continued to observe the gyro through the weekend to ensure that it remained stable.

The Hubble operations team plans to execute a series of tests to evaluate the performance of the gyro under conditions similar to those encountered during routine science observations, including moving to targets, locking on to a target, and performing precision pointing.  After these engineering tests have been completed, Hubble is expected to soon return to normal science operations.

Hubble is managed and operated at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

For more information about Hubble, visit:

www.nasa.gov/hubble

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/update-on-the-hubble-space-telescope-safe-mode

Offline Nomadd

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #271 on: 10/24/2018 08:20 am »
 I had a gyro problem like that once and got around it by putting a bias adjustment on the pickup circuit, letting them move the detection range out of the noise. I'd be glad to do the same for the HST if they'll cover the commute.
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Offline Targeteer

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #272 on: 10/27/2018 04:54 pm »
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-54


The Full Story
Release date: Oct 27, 2018
News Release number: STScI-2018-54
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Returns to Science Operations

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope returned to normal operations late Friday, Oct. 26, and completed its first science observations on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 2:10 AM EDT. The observations were of the distant, star-forming galaxy DSF2237B-1-IR and were taken in infrared wavelengths with the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. The return to conducting science comes after successfully recovering a backup gyroscope, or gyro, that had replaced a failed gyro three weeks earlier.

A gyro is a device that measures the speed at which the spacecraft is turning, which is necessary to help Hubble turn and lock on to new targets. One of Hubble’s gyros failed on Oct. 5, and the spacecraft’s operations team activated a backup gyro the next day. However, the backup incorrectly returned rotation rates that were far in excess of the actual rates.

Last week the operations team commanded Hubble to perform numerous maneuvers, or turns, and switched the gyro between different operational modes, which successfully cleared what was believed to be blockage between components inside the gyro that produced the excessively high rate values. Next, the team monitored and tested the gyro with additional maneuvers to make sure that the gyro was stable. The team then installed additional safeguards on the spacecraft in case the excessive rate values return, although this is not anticipated.

On Thursday, the operations team conducted further maneuvers to collect gyro calibration data. On Friday, Hubble performed activities similar to science observations, including rotating to point at different sky locations, and locking on to test targets. The team completed all of these activities without issue.

Late Friday, the team began the process to restore the scientific instruments to standard operating status. Hubble successfully completed maneuvers to get on target for the first science observations, and the telescope collected its first science data since Oct. 5.

Hubble is now back in its normal science operations mode with three fully functional gyros. Originally required to last 15 years, Hubble has now been at the forefront of scientific discovery for more than 28 years. The team expects the telescope will continue to yield amazing discoveries well into the next decade, enabling it to work alongside the James Webb Space Telescope.

Hubble is managed and operated at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Best quote heard during an inspection, "I was unaware that I was the only one who was aware."

Offline Star One

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #273 on: 12/20/2018 09:07 pm »
Who Gets to Look Out to the Edge of the Universe?

Quote
Unfortunately, the process may be flawed, too. In 2014, the Space Telescope Science Institute noticed a pattern: In more than a dozen review cycles since 2001, proposals led by men consistently did better than proposals led by women. The Institute’s leadership wondered whether the way they assessed proposals had something to do with it; under the current system, reviewers know the identities of applicants—including their gender—but applicants don’t know the identities of reviewers. It’s a standard setup in the sciences, from telescope proposals to paper submissions, but perhaps it had allowed subtle biases to creep in.

This year, the institute decided to conduct a double-blind review of Hubble proposals, which hid nearly all information about applicants, including gender, from reviewers. Of the 351 male-led proposals, 28 were picked. Of the 138 female-led proposals, 12 were chosen. That translates into an 8.7 percent success rate for female researchers, and 8 percent for male researchers.

Under the new review system, the disparity that Hubble’s decision-makers had seen year after year had disappeared.

Priyamvada Natarajan, a theoretical physicist at Yale who led the effort, said she was surprised at the outcome. “I was ready to see a small change, but not complete parity,” she said.

But she wasn’t surprised that the years-long pattern had been broken. Research has found ample evidence that men and women are evaluated differently in the same settings, and the Hubble program is no different, she said.

Offline bolun

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #274 on: 12/23/2018 07:44 pm »
FAINT STARLIGHT IN HUBBLE IMAGES REVEALS DISTRIBUTION OF DARK MATTER [HEIC1820]

20 December 2018

Astronomers using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have employed a revolutionary method to detect dark matter in galaxy clusters. The method allows astronomers to "see" the distribution of dark matter more accurately than any other method used to date and it could possibly be used to explore the ultimate nature of dark matter. The results were published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

http://sci.esa.int/hubble/61022-faint-starlight-in-hubble-images-reveals-distribution-of-dark-matter/

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Montes (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)

Offline Tywin

Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #275 on: 01/09/2019 07:42 am »
The knowledge is power...Everything is connected...
The Turtle continues at a steady pace ...

Offline woods170

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #276 on: 01/09/2019 08:15 am »
More problems for the Hubble  :(

https://twitter.com/NASAHubble/status/1082857056225259520

Hubble was last serviced in May 2009. The mission "certified" that Hubble was good to go for another five years. Thus, the warranty on Hubble expired almost five years ago. Anything since that is pure bonus.
« Last Edit: 01/11/2019 06:35 am by woods170 »

Offline Targeteer

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #277 on: 01/11/2019 06:01 am »
The rest of that statement is vital...

"At 17:23 UTC on Jan. 8, the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope suspended operations due to a hardware problem. Hubble will continue to perform science observations with its other three active instruments, while the Wide Field Camera 3 anomaly is investigated. Wide Field Camera 3, installed during Servicing Mission 4 in 2009, is equipped with redundant electronics should they be needed to recover the instrument."
Best quote heard during an inspection, "I was unaware that I was the only one who was aware."

Offline Targeteer

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #278 on: 01/12/2019 03:13 pm »
NASA continues to work toward recovering the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, which suspended operations on Tuesday, Jan. 8.

Shortly after noon EST on Jan. 8, software installed on the Wide Field Camera 3 detected that some voltage levels within the instrument were out of the predefined range. As expected under those conditions, the instrument autonomously suspended its operations as a safety precaution.

A team of instrument system engineers, Wide Field Camera 3 instrument developers, and other experts formed and quickly began collecting all available telemetry and onboard memory information to determine the sequence of events that caused the values to go out of limits.  This team is currently working to identify the root cause and then to construct a recovery plan. If a significant hardware failure is identified, redundant electronics built into the instrument will be used to recover and return it to operations.

The telescope continues to operate normally, executing observations with the other three instruments — the Advanced Camera for Surveys, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph — that are all performing nominally.

Originally required to last 15 years, Hubble has now been operating for more than 28. The final servicing mission in 2009, expected to extend Hubble’s lifetime an additional five years, has now produced more than nine years of science observations. During that servicing mission, astronauts installed the Wide Field Camera 3.

Hubble operations, like other satellite operations, are excepted activities as defined in the NASA furlough/shutdown plan. The current partial government shutdown is therefore not expected to have an impact on the recovery of the instrument to normal operations.

For more information about Hubble, visit:
Best quote heard during an inspection, "I was unaware that I was the only one who was aware."

Offline Blackstar

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Re: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope updates
« Reply #279 on: 01/15/2019 09:04 pm »
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/wide-field-camera-3-anomaly-on-hubble-space-telescope?fbclid=IwAR2X3rbAW43KKFX98ygDgGVGKlAyzFZewVSYz-3l1RWkno5sQtwB2FCzozI


Jan. 15, 2019
Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to Resume Operations

NASA has moved closer to conducting science operations again with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, which suspended operations on Tuesday, Jan. 8. Today, Jan. 15, the instrument was brought back to its operations mode.

Shortly after noon EST on Jan. 8, software installed on the Wide Field Camera 3 detected that some voltage levels within the instrument were out of the predefined range. The instrument autonomously suspended its operations as a safety precaution. Upon further investigation, the voltage levels appeared to be within normal range, yet the engineering data within the telemetry circuits for those voltage levels were not accurate. In addition, all other telemetry within those circuits also contained erroneous values indicating that this was a telemetry issue and not a power supply issue.

After resetting the telemetry circuits and associated boards, additional engineering data were collected and the instrument was brought back to operations. All values were normal. Additional calibration and tests will be run over the next 48 to 72 hours to ensure that the instrument is operating properly. Further investigation using both the new and the previously collected engineering data will be conducted to determine why those data values were originally incorrect.

Assuming that all tests work as planned, it is expected that the Wide Field Camera 3 will start to collect science images again by the end of the week. 

The Wide Field Camera 3 was installed during the last servicing mission to Hubble back in 2009.  Over 2,000 peer-reviewed published papers have been produced from its data. Hubble itself is in its 29th year of operations, well surpassing its original 15-year lifetime.

Hubble operations, like other satellite operations, are excepted activities as defined in the NASA furlough/shutdown plan. The current partial government shutdown does not affect its flight operations.

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