Hubble Telescope Is Offline, Something Seriously Went Wrong

NASA is working to save its iconic Hubble telescope, after a mysterious computer issue, took it offline last week. The hardware responsible for keeping all that running, is based on some seriously old-school tech. Hubble was launched into space in 1990s, and it immediately began capturing the universe in revolutionary detail.

The Earth-orbiting observatory has captured the births, and deaths of stars. It discovered new moons around Pluto, and tracked two interstellar objects as they zipped through our solar system. It has allowed astronomers to calculate the age, and expansion of the universe.

The telescope has spotted galaxies more than 13.4 billion light-years away, thereby capturing light from the universe's early years.

It’s easy to forget, that Hubble is very old. anybody who has tried to maintain an old computer will understand that, sometimes things just go wrong and stop working. So its not a surprise that the telescope's payload computer suddenly stopped working on 13th June.

That computer was actually built in the 1980s. It is like the brain of the Hubble telescope. it controls and monitors all the science instruments on the spacecraft. NASA engineers immediately rushed to analyze data from the telescope to pinpoint the problem.

They still haven't figured out, why the computer stopped. NASA tried, and failed, to restart it on 14th June. Initial data indicated that the issue could stem from a computer-memory module, that was degrading, so the Hubble team tried switching to one of three backup modules aboard the telescope.

But the command to start the new module didn't work either. the Hubble team tried again to bring both the current module and the backup online. But Both the attempts failed.

Credit: NASA/ESA

[dustinparker]

Without the shuttle. There is no way to service it. It went to a early death.

[randlerobbertson]

if true. its a terrible shame this telescope has enriched our conscioness

[BSnicks]

Can we blame it on someone? The US never fails right? So we must blame it on somebody. Any suggestions?