Hubble Trouble – NASA Investigates ACS Problem

NASA says the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope has stopped working, and initial data implicates a power failure on the so-called Side B electronics package.

Hubble entered a safemode at 7:34 am EST on January 27, 2007, according to NASA.

Installed aboard Hubble during a March 2002, servicing mission, the ACS is really several devices in one module, which includes three electronic cameras, filters and dispersers that detect light from the ultraviolet to the near infrared.

Click this link or the photo above to see a larger copy of this image and other Hubble Space Telescope images: Hubble Space Telescope Pictures

The instrument had been operating on its redundant electronics since
June 30, 2006, when NASA engineers transitioned from the primary,
Side A, electronics package due to a failure. Spacecraft engineers currently
are assessing the option to return ACS science operations to the
primary electronics so that observations could resume.

Hubble recovered from safemode around 2 a.m. EST on January 28, and
science observations will continue using the remaining Hubble
instruments: Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, Near Infrared Camera
Multi-Object Spectrograph, and the Fine Guidance Sensors.

A NASA statement says that an Anomaly Review Board was formed on January 29, 2007. Their report is due no later than March 2, 2007.

Prior to this incident NASA had announced plans to fly Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission-4 to the spacecraft in September 2008.

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