NASA was able to switch to the backup computer of the Hubble telescope

Since June 13, 2021 NASA has made a significant move with Hubble with its space telescope. The switch to the emergency on-board system was made on July 15.

This is very encouraging: NASA on July 16, 2021 Announced Was able to run the backup system of the Hubble Space Telescope. The iconic lab has been out of service since June 13th, Due to a problem affecting his board system, the “payload computer” that controls scientific instruments. In 31 years in space, the Hubble telescope has never had this kind of problem.. Attempts to restart and rebuild this board system failed.

In its news release, which has been constantly updated since the onset of darkness, NASA writes: Successful backup hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope, including running the backup on board system on July 15 “In spacecraft, such as the Hubble or Satellite, there is usually a redundancy, that is, a duplicate (or even triple) of board components in case of a technical problem. NASA was counting.

The space agency was just thatIdentify the origin of the problem facing Hubble, July 15. The on-board system is located A unit This is called “scientific instrument command and data manipulation” (or SI C&DH). This unit has an electrical control unit (“Power Control Unit” or PCU): this may be questionable.

Replace two emergency components

The recent maneuver by NASA illustrates two components, which are on the other side of the SI C&DH division:

• Emergency electrical control unit,
• As well as the control unit (its full name is “Command Unit / Scientific Data Format” or CU / SDF), backup.

The electrical control unit ensures that every part of the on-board system is supplied with constant power. The control unit is used to process and transmit data (scientific and technical) and instructions.

« Upon completion of these steps, the emergency board system in the same unit [ndlr : du côté « backup » de l’unité SI C&DH] Powered and loaded with flight software and returned to normal operating mode », Says NASA. Now the team in charge of the Hubble Telescope needs to monitor the hardware to make sure everything is working as expected. After this verification phase, the scientific instruments should be active again. However, you must first perform the procedures and make sure that the temperature of the equipment is constant. They must be calibrated before reliable scientific data can be collected again.

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