Recently it was reported that the Hubble Space Telescope which was doing its duty from past 28 years got malfunctioned and was in a partial dormant position since 7 years. One of the three gyroscopes stopped working somehow due to which the efficiency of the telescope decreased drastically. The use of these instruments is to keep the Hubble Telescope in a study position as its work is to focus on objects which are thousands of light years away from us. It was of vital importance to fix the telescope immediately.
Three working gyroscopes are needed by Hubble to work smoothly. It is important for the gyroscopes to remain active so that the Hubble can detect that it is pointed in the right position. In 2011 during service period NASA replaced the old gyroscopes with six new gyroscopes from which three were of old designs and three were of new designs.
The gyroscopes which stopped working were of old models and the new one were unable to start itself and were in a dormant mode.
The gyroscope spins at a speed of 19,200 rpm , which detects even the slightest movements taking place via angular momentum. When NASA tried to switch on the backup gyroscope, it reported that it was spinning at an extremely high speed than it was meant to be.
NASA first tried a procedure called the “running restart” where it turned it off and on again but it didn’t work. But then NASA performed shaking process. It switched the gyroscope from high to low mode which worked in activating them and bringing them to a normal position and start working.
NASA confirmed that there are some tests which are still needed to be performed so that it can at least perform till 2020 until the successor James Web Telescope gets launched.
Source – Extreme Tech, mnn
