The Hubble Space Telescope is suffering the kinds of aches and pains that can come with being old, and NASA officials say they鈥檙e shifting into a new way of pointing the telescope in order to work around a piece of hardware that鈥檚 become intolerably glitchy.
Officials also announced that, for now, they鈥檝e decided not to pursue a put forward by a wealthy private astronaut who wanted to go to Hubble in a SpaceX capsule, in a mission aimed at extending the telescope鈥檚 lifespan by boosting it up into a higher orbit and perhaps even adding new technology to enhance its operations.
鈥淓ven without that reboost, we still expect to continue producing science through the rest of this decade and into the next,鈥� , director of the astrophysics division in NASA鈥檚 science mission directorate, told reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday.
Because of atmospheric drag, the bus-sized telescope is slowly drifting down towards Earth. If nothing is eventually done to raise it up, it will likely plunge down into the atmosphere and mostly burn up in the mid-2030鈥檚.
That鈥檚 one reason why NASA was so interested when Jared Isaacman, who has previously gone to orbit in a SpaceX capsule, suggested mounting a mission to Hubble as part of a series of technology demonstration spaceflights he has planned.
NASA and SpaceX jointly worked on a feasibility study to see what might be possible for Hubble. The telescope has been in orbit since 1990 and was last repaired 15 years ago, by astronauts who went up in NASA鈥檚 space shuttles, which are now museum exhibits.
NASA鈥檚 Clampin told reporters that 鈥渁fter exploring the current commercial capabilities, we are not going to pursue a reboost right now.鈥�
He said the assessment of Isaacman鈥檚 proposal raised a number of considerations, including potential risks such as 鈥減remature loss of science鈥� if Hubble accidentally got damaged.
NASA officials stressed that Hubble鈥檚 instruments are healthy and the telescope remains incredibly productive.
鈥淲e do not see Hubble as being on its last legs,鈥� said , project manager for the Hubble Space Telescope at NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 鈥淲e do think it's a very capable observatory and poised to do exciting things.鈥�
But it will have to do those exciting things with a new way of operating the system it uses for pointing at celestial objects.
That鈥檚 because officials have abandoned their efforts to use a glitchy gyroscope that has repeatedly forced the telescope to science and go into 鈥渟afe鈥� mode in recent months.
Hubble鈥檚 pointing system is so precise, NASA says it is the equivalent of being able to keep a laser shining on a dime over 200 miles away for however long Hubble takes a picture 鈥� up to 24 hours. This system has long relied on using three gyroscopes at a time.
Now, though, to avoid having to use the sketchy gyro, NASA says Hubble will shift into a one-gyroscope mode of operation, a contingency that鈥檚 been around for years.
鈥淎fter completing a series of tests and carefully considering our options, we have made the decision that we will transition Hubble to operate using only one of its three remaining gyros,鈥� Clampin said. 鈥淥perationally, we believe this is our best approach to support Hubble science through this decade and into the next.鈥�
Using only one healthy gyroscope, and keeping one in reserve as a backup, will let the telescope continue to return gorgeous images of the universe, with some limitations. Hubble will be less efficient, for example, and it won鈥檛 be able to track moving objects that are close to Earth, within the orbit of Mars.
But Clampin said that 鈥渕ost of the observations it takes will be completely unaffected by this change.鈥�
Astronomers still clamor to use Hubble, with proposals for what to observe far exceeding the available telescope time.
The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021 did not render Hubble obsolete, as the two telescopes capture different kinds of light.
Eventually, NASA will have to decide what to do about Hubble, given that some of its large components would survive re-entering the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. The space agency has long considered sending up some kind of mission that would control its descent and ensure that any Hubble rubble would safely fall into an ocean.
Adding such a propulsion unit would mean that NASA could also boost Hubble鈥檚 orbit, enabling it to live longer and take advantage of whatever instruments continued to work. But NASA鈥檚 Clampin suggested that there is time to consider options.
鈥淥ur latest prediction is that the earliest Hubble would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere is the mid-2030s,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o we are not going to be seeing it come down in the next couple of years.鈥�
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