NASA Stops Hubble Observations Due To Problems With Giroscopics

NASA has temporarily suspended Hubble observations (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA The United States Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) announced that the Hubble Space Telescope has entered a safe mode or mode safe since last Thursday, November 23.

As long as this mode turns on, the science observation activity of the telescope will be temporarily shut down. According to NASA's admission, this mode is activated due to problems with gyroscopes, part of the Hubble system.

The gyroscope is an important part of the telescope as it is urgently needed to measure the speed of the spin. If this gyroscope is having problems, operations from the telescope will be hampered.

Actually, Hubble has three gyroscopes and only one has a problem. This device can't read the data properly so it will affect the other two telescope gyroscopes.

When he first entered safe mode on November 19, the gyroscope that had the problem was immediately restored by the operating team. Hubble can also be used again for the next day's observations.

Even though it has been repaired, this giro will be damaged again on November 21. Finally, Hubble entered safe mode again on November 23, as NASA has said.

Although observations are being stopped and there is a problem with the gyroscope, Hubble remains stable and healthy for now. Science operations were temporarily shut down until the Hubble team provided new directions from Earth.

Please note that Hubble has six giros installed since 2009. Given that the operation has been going on for quite a long time, only three giros are still surviving today.

This situation made the operating team try to solve problems in gyroscopes and develop solutions so that this problem can be resolved quickly in the future. They are also looking for ways to reconfigure Hubble with just one giro.