As you can tell by putting “hubble” into the blog’s search engine on the right, the Hubble Space Telescope has been a strikingly successful eye on what’s going on (and what went on) in the universe, and very powerful tool in lots of research. A lot of that research is done with the instrument called the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which have been the instrument in most heavy demand by researchers since it went online in 2002 (Hubble was launched much earlier, in 1990 of course). The instrument stopped working a few days ago (see e.g. stories here and here [update: and especially here]), and is not expected to become operational again without direct intervention. Given that the Hubble orbits some 360 miles above the earth, this is not an easy thing to do.
There are other instruments on board too, but the loss of use of this one is a heavy blow to lots of Astronomy research programmes. There is a scheduled space shuttle servicing mission, due to take place in September 2008, and so it is expected [but see update below] that this instrument will be replaced as part of the already scheduled work for that mission (graphic above right is from the BBC article, where you can also find a summary of the work scheduled for 2008). That’s quite a long time to wait, of course, so my heart goes out to the many people affected by this. It’s not just a slow down in research – it will also certainly mean some postdoctoral and other positions no longer being viable, as pointed out on Dynamics of Cats. [update: See also Julianne’s post on Cosmic Variance.]
[Update: No repairs likely, apparently. Two commenters, Scott H. and agm, pointed this out. See also the New York Times article by Dennis Overbye.]
-cvj
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The mission, last one for the Atlantis, is currently scheduled to launch September 11, 2008. Those dates usually change, so don’t worry too much. Plug for our Pan-STARRS system: It will allow much wider surveys from the ground, including 5000 Type Ia supernovae.
Thanks! I’ll update with that information…
-cvj
agm and I were apparently typing at the same moment …
and so it is expected that this instrument will be replaced as part of the already scheduled work for that mission
No, it’s not expected that it will be replaced, unfortunately. Steinn as usual has the straight dope on this; quoting from his comment on CV:
“The current word is that the servicing mission schedule is full with other priority tasks and the training schedule is also full, so they will most likely not attempt a repair of the ACS.”
This is also described in Dennis Overbye’s NYT article today.
When it comes to servicing missions, NASA loves to set things up in such a way that the astronauts can do more than they promised — it makes for a heroic story. (I’ve heard this straight from the mouth of a higher up at STScI.) But in this case, the repair sounds so extensive that I’m inclined to believe that they really won’t be able to do it.
That’s interesting. The NYT article presents the consensus out of GSFC as saying the camera will not be repaired:
Julianne seems to agree.