The Hubble observatory camera stops working

Source: ioncmaste.ca The most basic instrument on the old Hubble space observatory has muted over the weekend, stopping providing wonderful images of distant galaxies and newborn stars. The engineers are finding out why.

Project managers anticipate that Hubble's advanced surveillance camera will be shut down at least until the end of this month, but its hope will eventually be restored. Meanwhile, two other cameras are still operating normally.

" I think we have identified where the problem is, " said Edward Ruitberg, deputy program director. If the judgment of the engineers' problems is correct, the problem will be solved by starting a backup power system. It is thought that a circuit on the old system has been damaged.

This backup power system was tested before Hubble was launched into orbit in 1990, but has not been started since then.

Hubble is in need of new batteries to operate and new gyroscopes to make it stable as well as towards specific airspace. If not maintained, its performance may be poor in 2007 or 2008.

NASA said another repair mission could help Hubble continue to operate after 2010. Finally, this observatory will be brought back to earth.

In another development, on July 1, NASA will allow Discovery to take off.

T. An