Sept. 7, 2007 — Ground control teams are working around the failure of a steering device aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, while NASA presses ahead with plans to send a shuttle crew to service the observatory.
The shutdown of a third gyroscope, which spins like a top to keep the telescope locked on celestial targets for scientific observations, leaves Hubble engineers with few options in the face of additional — and unfortunately likely — failures.
Engineers have devised a way for the telescope to operate with just two gyroscopes and even one in a pinch, but the sole remaining spare is as old as the gear that has already failed.
The problem is a delicate, hair-thin wire needed to pass an electrical current into the gyroscopes to spin.
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A bromide bath that envelopes the wire is eroding the small amount copper contained in the wire leads, said NASA's Michael Weiss, who oversees technical issues for the Hubble program at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
"It's hard to believe that one thin little wire, not much thicker than a human hair, can stand between us and exploring the universe," said Ray Villard, with the Baltimore-based Space Telescope Science Institute, which oversees Hubble's science operations.
