Hubble Telescope's Main Camera Shuts Down

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."

Comments

Re:What a huge POS

[peragrin]

why waste it in such a fashion. The shuttle is designed to retrieve it. how much could the smithsonian get for having that on display.

That would be a good thing for Nasa to do.

Re:Can we trust NASA?

[teridon]

Dear Troll,

The HST Data Archive (HDA) has always been available to the public, albeit after a one-year "proprietary rights" period.

Re:Funny?

[anubi]

See, this is what happens when we do not fund our organizations sufficiently. They do the best with what they have.

I am still miffed after reading another story elsewhere about what we pay football coaches versus what we pay the president of the college.

We'll get what we pay for. Maybe the average American feels tougher football games are more important to our society than scientific research.

Most do not want to take the time to study science... but in the end, its the laws of nature ( applied science ) that will determine the temperature of my house, the operation of my car, and whether or not I eat. In short, my whole life is determined by my and other's knowledge of applying science.

Maybe pretty pictures of the stars isn't deemed particulary useful. The pictures are only the frosting. The important thing to me is gaining more and more understanding of materials and physics governing them. Technologies developed are useful for many things, especially medical and agricultural.

I feel that as an intelligent species, it behooves us to understand the universe around us and our place in it. By observing phenomena happening somewhere else, it will help us to intelligently react if it happens to us.