Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY
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A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 10 OctOber 2018
Hubble Space Telescope sidelined by serious pointing failure
By MARCIA DUNN bach, director of the it was turned off some years
AP Aerospace Writer Space Telescope Science ago after exhibiting some
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Institute, which operates "funny behavior" even
(AP) — The Hubble Space Hubble. "The fact that though it was getting the
Telescope has been side- we're having some gyro job done, he said. That's
lined by a serious pointing problems, that's kind of the one that flight control-
problem. a long tradition with the lers turned on Saturday as
NASA announced Monday observatory."Gyroscopes a backup; as of Monday,
that one of Hubble's gyro- are needed to keep the it still wasn't working as ex-
scopes failed last Friday. 340-mile-high (540-kilome- pected.
While that was expected — ter-high) Hubble pointed Sembach said everyone
that particular gyro was ex- in the right direction during wants to be careful in at-
pected to go sometime this observations. Precise point- tempting a repair.
year — the surprise came ing is crucial: Astronomers "Obviously, we don't want
when a backup did not use the telescope to peer to make things worse," he
kick in properly Saturday. deep into the cosmos, re- said.
As a result, Hubble remains vealing faraway solar sys- Hubble normally uses three
in so-called safe mode and tems as well as galaxies gyroscopes to function,
all science observations and black holes. Just last but could get by with one
are on hold. week, astronomers said or two, something it's done
The 28-year-old telescope they may have discovered before. But that leaves little
has had trouble with its gy- the first moon outside our room for additional break-
roscopes before. solar system, with Hubble's downs. Besides redundan-
Spacewalking shuttle as- help. cy, three functional gyro-
tronauts replaced all six in Since its launch in 1990, scopes also provide more
2009 during the final servic- Hubble has made more flexibility in pointing, Sem-
ing mission. Three of them than 1.3 million observa- bach said.
are now considered unus- tions. "We'll be fine," he said from
able. In this April 25, 1990 file photo provided by NASA, most of the Two of Hubble's gyroscopes the Baltimore institute. "I'm
giant Hubble Space Telescope can be seen as it is suspended
"I think Hubble's in good in space by Discovery's Remote Manipulator System (RMS) fol- are working fine, Sembach sure Hubble has many years
hands right now, I really lowing the deployment of part of its solar panels and antennae. said. of good science ahead of
do," said Kenneth Sem- Associated Press The last one was in reserve; it."q
NASA head: Space station
hole cause will be determined
By JIM HEINTZ "I strongly believe we're go- even when a commercial
Associated Press ing to get the right answer crew is up and running we
MOSCOW (AP) — The head to what caused the hole are still going to be launch-
of the U.S. space agency on the International Space ing American astronauts
said Tuesday that he's sure Station and that together on Soyuz rockets and we
that investigators will deter- we'll be able to continue would love to have Rus-
mine the cause of a myste- our strong collaboration," sian cosmonauts launching
rious hole that appeared Bridenstine said. "What on commercial crew rock-
on the International Space we've got to do is we've ets in the United States,"
Station, which his Russian got to very dispassionately Bridenstine said.
counterpart has said was allow the investigation to Regarding the NASA-led
deliberately drilled.NASA go forward without specu- Gateway project to build
Administrator Jim Briden- lation, without rumor, with- an orbiting moon outpost,
stine also said that col- out innuendo, without con- Rogozin said recently that
laboration with Russia's spiracy." Russia couldn't afford to
Roscosmos remains impor- Although the U.S. is work- participate in other coun-
tant, despite recent com- ing toward commercial tries' projects in a second-
The Soyuz rocket is raised into a vertical position on the launch ments by agency head launches to the ISS, Russia ary role. But Bridenstine said
pad, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Ka- Dmitry Rogozin that Russia shouldn't regard itself as international involvement
zakhstan. wouldn't accept a "sec- sidelined, he said. in the project was key.
ond-tier role" in a NASA-led "There is coming a day "We're going to build an
plan to build an outpost when we're going to have architecture between the
near the moon. our own access to the In- earth and the moon where
The hole that appeared ternational Space Station we can go back and forth
in a Russian Soyuz capsule through a commercial a lot with robots and land-
docked to the ISS caused crew. I want to be really ers and rovers and humans
a brief loss of air pres- clear — that is not a re- ... the entire architecture
sure in August before be- placement for the Russian between the Earth and the
ing patched. The incident Soyuz capabilities. We see moon requires reusability. It
sparked wide speculation it as redundancy and we requires international part-
and consternation. want to make sure that ners," he said.q
