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Hubble Telescope's Main Camera Shuts Down

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the always-on-the-fritz dept.

anthemaniac writes "Space.com is reporting that the aging observatory's primary camera, the ACS, has been in safe mode since the weekend. From the article: 'An initial investigation indicates the camera has stopped functioning, and the input power feed to its Side B electronics package has failed.' The camera has shut down before and been revived."

2 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What a huge POS by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Truly spoken like an ignorant retard. Or a troll, in which case I'm falling for it. This "POS" is one of the greatest astronomical instrument ever devised, and has yielded enough data for years of study to come. There's a reason why scientist want to keep it around.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  2. Re:Funny? by Carmelbuck · · Score: 3, Insightful
    China have a demonstrated ability to kill a satellite. Why not use this to get Hubble, or for that matter, any other satellite down?

    Eh? In case you're actually serious about this, (a) The US demonstrated ASAT capability over 20 years ago, and (b) ASAT capability is completely irrelevant, as such attacks don't deorbit the satellite, but result in tens of thousands of pieces of debris that are dangerous to other satellites.

    In any case, casting aspersions on NASA's ability based on Hubble is ridiculous, as it's been by any measure a spectacularly successful instrument, which even 17 years after launch has capabilities not matched by any foreseeable ground-based instruments (no, not even with adaptive optics) or by any planned space instrument.