have you ever heard of the humble space
telescope it's probably
the most known telescope of all time
because it provided us with
images like this humble changed
our understanding of the universe and
over time we learned to love it
the life of hst was not an easy one
nasa had some troubles that had to be
adjusted
and every time in some ways they managed
to repair it
but now it seems hubble is in trouble
again and scientists are trying to
figure out why
but how did nasa repair the humble space
telescope
and what will nasa do next maybe
hubble's going to get repaired again
in this video we will tell you what we
know
what's happening with the hubble space
telescope
[Applause]
orbiting high above earth in the
so-called low earth
orbit the hubble space telescope had one
of the clearest views of the universe
its sight is free from the blurring and
absorbing effects of the atmosphere
it's sensitive to infrared light visible
light
and it can detect also ultraviolet light
which is impossible to detect for a
ground-based telescope
because it is absorbed by the atmosphere
and therefore visible
only from space humble has beamed
hundreds of
thousands of celestial images back to
earth during its journey in space
each instrument on hst was designed to
examine the universe
in a different way using its cameras
hubble captures
framed images using spectrographs breaks
the light into colors for analysis
together this is probably the most
important data we have about our
universe
however these are not the only
instruments that have flown aboard
hubble
in fact the telescope was designed to be
visited periodically by a crew of
astronauts
can you imagine that astronauts bringing
new instruments and technology from time
to time from earth
to the hst this is not science fiction
hubble was launched in 1990 and from
december 1993 to may 2009
our beloved telescope was repaired and
updated four times
this actually means that astronauts
visited hst five
times in order to make repairs and add
new instruments
the first problem and maybe the most
famous one that hubble had
was the one with the primary mirror
after its launch in april of 1990
nasa discovered that the primary mirror
was flawed
it didn't work as expected because it
had an aberration that affected the
clarity of the telescope's early images
the flaw was tiny only about 1 50th the
width of a human hair but significant
enough
to distort hubble's vision during the
so-called servicing mission one in
december of 1993
astronauts added corrective optics to
compensate for the flaw
the optics acted like eyeglasses to
correct hubble's vision
also in 1997 the servicing mission too
took place
whose aim was to extend hubble's
wavelength range into the near infrared
for imaging
and spectroscopy allowing scientists to
probe the most
distant reaches of the universe the
replacement of failed or degraded
spacecraft components
increased efficiency and performance
then in 1990 with
service mission 3a and 3b hubble entered
a state of dormancy
called safe mode while nasa's astronauts
were tried to repair one of hubble's six
gyros
during servicing mission 3b astronauts
also
replaced hubble's solar panels and
installed the advanced camera for
surveys which
took the place of hubble's faint object
camera the telescope's last original
instrument
the last servicing mission happened in
2009 when two scientific instruments
were installed
the cosmic origins spectrograph cos
and wide field camera 3 wfc 3
two failed instruments the space
telescope imaging spectrograph
stis and the advanced camera 4 surveys
acs were revived by the first ever on
orbit repairs with these efforts hubble
was brought to the apex
of its scientific capabilities to
prolong hubble's life
new batteries new gyroscopes a new
science computer were
also installed during the mission's five
spacewalks
additionally a device was attached to
the base of the telescope to facilitate
deorbiting when the telescope is
eventually decommissioned
this is a wise choice because we don't
want hubble to fall towards earth
breaking houses instead we maybe want to
celebrate it at the end of its mission
and put it in a museum so that
everybody can show love and respect to
one of the most important
instruments humanity has ever conceived
hubble has taken over six hundred
thousand additional observations
to exceed 1.5 million during its
lifetime
those observations continue to change
our understanding of the universe
it has contributed to some of the most
significant discoveries of our cosmos
including the accelerating expansion of
the universe the evolution of galaxies
over time
and the first atmospheric studies of
planets beyond our solar system
but now hubble is getting old and it
seems to have some issues
scientists are trying to figure out
what's happening but it's hard to say
but what exactly has happened before
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what happened is that the hubble space
telescope's payload computer
which operates the spacecraft's
scientific instruments went down
suddenly on june 13th
without it the instruments on board
meant to snap pictures and collect data
are not currently working
scientists have run a series of tests on
the malfunctioning computer system but
have yet to figure out what went wrong
it's just the inefficiency of trying to
fix something which is orbiting 400
miles over your head
instead of in your laboratory paul hertz
the director of astrophysics for
nasa said if this computer were in the
lab we'd be hooking up monitors and
testing the inputs and outputs all over
the place
and would be really quick to diagnose it
he said all we can do is send a command
from our limited set of commands and
then see what data comes out of the
computer
and then send that data down and try to
analyze it
nasa continues its efforts to diagnose
the problems on the hubble space
telescope and return the veterans space
mission to full operation
science operations were suspended on
june 13th when the computer responsible
for the scientific instruments began to
malfunction
the science instruments themselves were
automatically placed into safe mode
and the rest of the telescope continued
to function normally
tests of the payload computer indicated
the problem was not in the computer's
memory
as originally thought but somewhere else
in the science instrument command and
data handling unit s i c and d h
the team is investigating a unit that
formats commands and data within the
telescope
and a power regulator designed to ensure
a steady voltage to the payload
computer's hardware
once the faulty piece of equipment has
been identified the team will most
likely have to switch to backup hardware
that is already installed on the
spacecraft this is a
delicate operation that will be
practiced in computer simulations on
earth first
a similar operation took place in 2008
after a previous
formatting unit failed a servicing
mission in 2009 then replaced the entire
sic and dh unit with the one currently
being used
full size operations are expected to
resume in due course
however the telescope itself which runs
on a different system than the advanced
camera and spectrograph
has continued to operate by pointing at
different parts of the sky on a set
schedule
the reason nasa decided to do that is so
that the telescope keeps changing its
orientation
relative to the sun in the way that we
had planned
and that maintains the thermal stability
of the telescope keeps it at the right
temperature
the last time astronauts visited hubble
was in 2009 for its fifth and final
servicing mission
maybe now it's time for a sixth mission
we don't actually know
but someone says that because hubble was
designed to be serviced by the space
shuttle
and the space shuttle fleet has since
been retired there are no further plans
to service the outer space observatory
so will this be the end of hubble's work
did we really come to the end of an era
we just have to wait and see what nasa
is going to do meanwhile
nasa is building another space telescope
it's called the james webb space
telescope
it will be bigger than hubble webb will
not orbit earth as hubble does
webb will orbit the sun in a spot on the
other side of the moon
the webb telescope will be able to see a
different kind of light than the light
hubble sees and will help nasa see even
more of the universe
its launch is planned for the end of
2021 from france guyana on a european
space agency ariane 5 rocket
so with crossed fingers we will soon
have another beloved telescope orbiting
earth
webb's mission lifetime after launch is
designed to be at least five and a half
years and could last longer than 10
years
the lifetime is limited by the amount of
fuel used for maintaining the orbit and
by the possibility that webb's
components
will degrade over time in the harsh
environment of space
it will push us to dream bigger and
bigger and to understand more and more
about our universe
for example the james webb space
telescope will
use quasars to unlock the secrets of the
early universe
observe ice molecules and minerals
monitor the weather of planets and their
moons however webb will be beyond the
reach of any manned vehicle
currently being planned for the next
decade because it will be operated at
the second earth
sun lagrange point l2 located
approximately 1 million miles
1.5 million kilometers away from the
earth
hubble is in low earth orbit
approximately 375 miles or 600
kilometers away from the earth and is
therefore readily accessible for
surfacing
that's all for this video thanks for
watching everyone
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