The Hubble Telescope's payload computer is broken. NASA has spent over a week trying to fix it. USA TODAY<\/p>\n
NASA has spent more than a week trying to fix the Hubble Telescope's computer hardware issues.<\/p>\n
The problem: a1980s-era payload computer, which is supposed to control and coordinate scientific instruments aboard the spacecraft and monitor them for health and safety purposes, stopped working June 13, according to a NASA statement. <\/p>\n
\"After the halt occurred ... the main computer stopped receiving a keep-alive signal, which is a standard handshake between the payload and main spacecraft computers to indicate all is well,\" NASA said in the statement.<\/p>\n
The payload computer is part of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling module, which was replaced in 2009 during the last astronaut-servicing mission to Hubble, which launched in 1990.<\/p>\n
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The main computer has put all the scientific instruments into safe mode. An attempt to restart the computer the next day failed.<\/p>\n
Further attempts to switch to a backup memory module and obtain diagnostic information on both modules also failed.<\/p>\n
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured astonishing images of deep space, such as the trailing arms of NGC 2276, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Cepheus, 120 million light-years away from Earth.(Photo: -, ESA\/HUBBLE\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Hubble Space Telescope operations team told USA TODAYthat initial indications pointed to a degrading computer memory module as the source of the halt, but the team is still collecting data. <\/p>\n
\"The operations team will be running tests and collecting more information on the system to further isolate the problem.The science instruments will remain in a safe mode state until the issue is resolved,\" the statement said.<\/p>\n
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Theteam told USA TODAY that the computer has on several occasions locked up or froze. In those cases,the computer has been restarted and normal science operations were restored.<\/p>\n
\"This is similar to your laptop periodically freezing and needing a reboot,\" the teamsaid, adding that there is not a firm timeline for bringing the computer online again.<\/p>\n
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\nHubble Telescope's payload computer is down. NASA has spent days trying to fix it. - USA TODAY<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"