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One of HST's Cameras Is Back In Action

Posted by timothy on from the skynet-makes-this-look-like-a-science-experiment dept.

StupendousMan writes "One of the two big cameras aboard the Hubble Space Telescope is the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, or WFPC2 for short. As the most recent HST status report indicates, the camera was recently powered up again and sent commands to take some test images. Today (Sunday, Oct 26), I received E-mail from a colleague at STScI indicating that the calibration images were 'nominal.' That's NASA-speak for 'fine and dandy.' The E-mail goes on to say 'The data look nominal, indicating that Hubble optical imaging capabilities are in fine shape. (We can expect more glorious Hubble images in the near future.) ... Science with WFPC2 has resumed, and plans are underway to restore ACS/SBC to service this coming week.' Let's hope that the other big instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), also comes back to life successfully. We should find out in just a week or so."

16 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Hopefully... by JackassJedi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hopefully they will also be able to restore functionality to WPSHU (Whatever Propulsion System Hubble Uses), so we can get a nice DOL (Direct Oriented Look) on the STARS (Stars That ARe Special). If not, I will commit SWABBL (Suicide With A Big, Big fraking Lens) and then BLAH (Burn Like A Hubble inferno) like Pinback on bomb #20!

    --
    Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
    1. Re:Hopefully... by Fluffeh · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sorry, I got a little lost with your technical talk there. Could you please repost this with a slashdot friendly car analogy?

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      Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
    2. Re:Hopefully... by JackassJedi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Basically you have this nice Mercedes, but instead of a windshield the front is fully closed.

      How bad can it be, right? you think, so you drive straight on, hit your fence really hard, break through and stagger down the road until you hit right the front window of Aunt Elma's bakery.

      All the buns drop and scatter over the floor and onto the walkway, and a sudden bystander drops her marmalade, which gives you a dissociated orange marmalade jelly bun inversion.

      The resulting proton and muon-neutrino particle emission burns a big hole into your windshield, just SLIGHTLY missing your head, and finally you can see.

      The resulting Schroedinger waveform collapse from you suddenly looking at the buns, the marmalade, the woman who dropped the marmalade and Aunt Elma causes a time paradox which results in you repeating the event forever and ever, that is, until you realize, that you're NOT the final cylon, because, you just can't be (can you?).

      --
      Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
  2. Good To Hear by quanticle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While this is good news, its still important to remember that Hubble is running on backup systems, and that whatever redundancy was built into the original design is largely used up. Hopefully this will allow NASA to push the scheduled repair mission forward.

    --
    We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    1. Re:Good To Hear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Good news?

      No, this is definitely not good news. This means that the Hubble knows how to fix its injuries. It also probably means that the Hubble has attained consciousness. How happy do you think that the Hubble is going to be when it realizes that we intend to attach a rocket to it so that we can burn it up in the atmosphere? If the Hubble can pull an advanced camera out of the vacuum of space, it could probably also pull out a giant anti-matter bomb that could annihilate the Earth.

      There is only one safe course of action. We must launch a surprise nuclear attack on the Hubble before it can adapt any further.

  3. I Can See Clearly Now by Overkill+Nbuta · · Score: 5, Funny

    The glitch is gone.

    1. Re:I Can See Clearly Now by sleeponthemic · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can see all obstacles (nominally) in my way

      --
      I record my sleeptalking
  4. Just to clarify the status of ACS... by Einer2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Solar Blind Channel (the least useful component of ACS, unless you happen to use it) is the only component coming back. The Wide Field Channel and High Resolution Channel, the real workhorses, aren't coming back until after the Servicing Mission. Even then, the ACS repair is on the bottom of their priority list since most of its functionality is duplicated (albeit not as well) by the optical channel of WFC3. This means that the ACS repair, perhaps along with the STIS repair, most likely will be crowded out of the schedule by replacement of the instrument control computer.

    --
    Microsoft delenda est!
    1. Re:Just to clarify the status of ACS... by Betelgeuse · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah. No one really cares about the SBC. Hopefully they'll fix the rest of the ACS channels on their trip up.

      The only good news about this most recent failure is that it's relatively easy to replace the electronics; it was designed to be replaced and is mounted on a door on HST that they were planning on opening anyway. The only concern is that the replacement hasn't been used in over 18 years (i.e. since HST went up). But, the general thought is that the replacement of the data handling computer shouldn't necessarily bump any of the planned parts of SM4. I also think that ACS is above STIS on their priority list, so hopefully ACS is still likely to be fixed.

      --
      I couldn't tell if you were experimenting with poor-man's cryogenics or looking for the orange sherbet.
    2. Re:Just to clarify the status of ACS... by ChrisCampbell47 · · Score: 4, Informative

      This means that the ACS repair, perhaps along with the STIS repair, most likely will be crowded out of the schedule by replacement of the instrument control computer.

      Sh*t, I knew this would get modded up to +5. NOT "most likely" at all. Everyone at all of the briefings has been saying over and over that they can "most likely" fit this into the existing plan, without pushing out any of the other repairs. They've said it would take about 1.5-2.0 hours of EVA timeline.

      Assuming the ACS and STIS repairs go well (and that is indeed a big assumption) they'll have plenty of time.

      Now, it is true that the ACS repair is not the highest priority, and they already weren't planning on getting around to it until EVA 3. And the SI/CDH repair is looking to be an EVA 1 task, since it IS indeed a high priority. But don't say it's likely to push ACS out, because it's not.

      --
      One simple rule for its versus it's
    3. Re:Just to clarify the status of ACS... by Einer2 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, there's a lot of gloomy talk circulating among people whose Cycle 17 programs are directly affected by this. This means that either the PR people at STScI are being excessively optimistic or the liaisons to the community aren't quashing rumors very effectively.

      --
      Microsoft delenda est!
    4. Re:Just to clarify the status of ACS... by ChrisCampbell47 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hmmm, could be. I guess we'll see in a few weeks when they make the STS-125 decision, and when they come out with the reworked timeline.

      --
      One simple rule for its versus it's
  5. HST by Devoidoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    When I read the headline I thought it had something to do with a secret surveillance network left behind by Hunter S. Thompson.

  6. All systems nominal by PaganRitual · · Score: 4, Funny

    the calibration images were 'nominal.' That's NASA-speak for 'fine and dandy

    It also sounds so much better when spoken by a sultry female computer, normally just after your Jade Falcon TimberWolf as touched down on a hostile alien world.

    Hubble speaks in a sultry female voice, right, right?

  7. Re:Moon for a calibration image by Kligat · · Score: 2, Informative

    How much something can be magnified with a telescope is attainable through simple trigonometry. At 589km above Earth, a kilometer is about 180 arcseconds. The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2's field of vision is about 164 arcseconds. Anything the Hubble would spot would be as interesting as a random Google Earth image, and besides, the Hubble Telescope orbits Earth at 5,700 m/s and probably wasn't designed to cope with that velocity just to target Earth.

    As far as the Moon, I'd guess it would probably make a poor calibration target, because it is just so big. The WFPC2's field of vision is 8% of the Moon's diameter. It's also a few hundred thousand times brighter than the brightest star. At 78x magnification, with my simple telescope, the Moon takes up the entire field of vision. From this I can deduct that the Hubble Telescope's magnification with that camera is around 975x.

  8. Re:first read as by geezer+nerd · · Score: 2, Funny

    And when I saw the headline I wondered what was special about Harry Truman's cameras, and why would slashdot be interested?
    I guess HST is a generationally-biased acronym.