Should I be worried about the Hubble Telescope status update scheduled for June 4th?

Tomorrow (June 4th) we’ll get an update on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and it could be a pretty big deal.

Agency on June 3rd presentation The Hubble Space Telescope team will hold a press conference on the status of the observatory tomorrow at 4 PM EDT. Specifically, officials said the point of the meeting was to “provide an update on the operations” of the telescope. Sounds routine, right? Well, not necessarily. The Hubble Telescope team doesn’t often hold press conferences like this. Especially when there are only two presenters, both of whom boast rather high titles.

Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division and Science Mission Director at NASA Headquarters, will speak, as will Patrick Krause, Hubble project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Related: Billionaire hopes to upgrade Hubble telescope on private SpaceX mission, but can that actually happen?

This news comes just three days after Hubble. Entered automatic safe mode That’s because the faulty reading comes from one of the last three gyroscopes in operation, devices that help scientists make sure the telescope is pointing in the right direction. Since its launch in 1990, Hubble has gone through numerous gyroscopes, including some replacements. There are now 3 left.

Before you worry too much: Yes, it is. It may seem like a terrible combination of isolated facts. But there is some context that gives hope that Hubble has not yet completed his mission.

First, in its announcement about the upcoming conference, NASA said what agency officials have repeated time and time again: “NASA expects Hubble to continue making discoveries this decade, collaborating with other observatories, such as the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope. Next time.”

This is a sentiment shared by previous gyroscope problems Hubble has faced, including early this year and late last year. The latter incident involved a short series of complications that were all resolved in practice. But neither party needed the meeting to let the public know that Hubble was back. The online notice was enough.

This brings us to our next point. Hubble doesn’t actually need all three gyroscopes to function.

This Hubble Space Telescope image of barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158 looks as if someone took a white marking pen. In fact, this is a combination of time exposures of a foreground asteroid moving through Hubble’s field of view, photobombing galaxy observations. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, Pablo García Martín (UAM); Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI); Acknowledgment: Alex Filippenko (UC Berkeley))

As NASA notes, Hubble technically only needs one gyroscope to function properly. According to the European Space Agency (Mission conducted in collaboration with NASA) A single gyroscope mode may limit scientific observations to some extent.

But even if the telescope’s currently defective gyroscope turns out to be unable to return to normal, there are two ways to ensure that space explorers can continue to survey the universe. For example, in 2004, the observatory Placed on two gyroscopes mode after the planned Hubble servicing mission was canceled due to the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy. Ultimately, Hubble Servicing Mission 4 replaced all six gyroscopes, the last in 2009. fifth service mission after. But now Hubble only has three gyroscopes left, one of which has recently become the cause of the problem. The remaining three all experienced a phenomenon known as “”.Flex lead failure,” This has to do with wiring.

NASA analysis shows that if only two total gyroscopes are operational, the team will likely retain one and place the other as a spare. That way, if one of the remaining two gyroscopes goes down, the other, which was dormant, will be nice and fresh and ready to go for Hubble. last stretch.

Last stretch? Hopefully that won’t be the case, but unfortunately it’s true that scientists believe the telescope could be retired in the mid to late 2030s as Earth’s atmospheric drag is slowly pulling the spacecraft down from its orbit of about 515 kilometers above Earth.

Such decommissioning would involve controlling the telescope’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere or lifting it slightly into higher Earth orbit, where it could rest safely for decades. When Hubble re-enters the atmosphere, it will mostly burn up like other spacecraft in the process. too big to enough flare up I imagine that anything that can be salvaged will be preserved with the honor it deserves.

It’s unclear whether that’s a possibility anymore if astronauts stick to brief mentions of spacecraft services in orbit, as they did in the early days.

In the late ’90s and early 2000s, intrepid NASA astronauts ascended to Earth’s orbit and tinkered with the observatory, installing upgrades and modifying it. The previously mentioned Service Missions 4 and 5 were part of this effort. Consider a microgravity body shop for space telescopes that also includes spacewalks.

The best-known Hubble servicing mission is probably the first that occurred shortly after the telescope was launched into space. Because the telescope revealed important scientific data. damaged When we return to Earth. Long story short, Hubble’s images were blurry and scientists realized they had inadvertently given the spacecraft a defective mirror. There were no problems, the agency said, and sent astronauts to make the necessary adjustments. In space!

A spaceship wrapped in metal is seen up close. Astronauts are providing their services.

Temporarily captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s shiny, mirror-like surface, what appears to be a multitude of astronauts is actually just two. Astronauts John Grunsfeld (left) and Andrew Feustel during a spacewalk on May 14, 2009. Five during the STS-125 mission. (Image source: NASA.)

Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who recently rose to prominence in the commercial space sector thanks to the successful private space launch of Inspiration4, which he funded, and the upcoming Polaris Dawn effort, has sought to relaunch the Hubble servicing concept. However, this concept has not yet come to fruition, and it is unclear whether it will ever be realized.

That said, I am aware of the hypocrisy behind what I am about to say. Speculation is the enemy of optimism.

In theory, anything is possible. We’ll soon learn more about Hubble’s fate, and it’s probably best to postpone worrying until we have something to worry about. Additionally, Hubble has generally continued to output images of the universe as if nothing had changed. In fact, a new star portrait came out today, and Hubble there was a hand Under construction. This is a very cool view of a young star with a comet-like tail as another star (hidden in the image) is pulling the material.

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