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| ||||| Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 09:58 am I read in the news today, that if controllers cannot restart Hubble after the change-out of the power controller, Hubble would be “Abandoned in Space”. Is this true, I always though there was a contingency plan that would allow for the Hubble to be stowed in the Shuttle cargo bay and returned to earth. Is there a reason this isn’t possible, or has the news simply sensationalized the story? | |
| ||||| Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 02:41 pm A lot of stuff would have to be jettisoned to stow the telescope back in the Shuttle and bring it home. This stuff would include all the carriers, platforms, and replacement equipment brought up to service the Telescope as well as some items on the Telescope now such as the new solar arrays. This scenario is not part of the contingency plans. Instead, the contingency plans emphasize recovery of functionality in the Hubble at least to a point where it could survive until another servicing mission. | |
| ||||| Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 02:47 pm It is unlikely that we would be unable to power HST back up. We just have not done it before. In 2010, NASA plans to bring HST back home using the Shuttle. At that point, we will have to discard some hardware such as these new Solar Arrays (that don't roll up), the NCS radiator, and some other hardware. | |
| ||||| Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 07:54 am I was concerned that the added stress of a power cycle may be too much for many of the Hubble system that have been operating constantly for almost 10 years. I gues the only system that could result in a total failure is the one that's being replaced. | |
| ||||| Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 10:33 am Looks like total failure didn't happen. | |
| ||||| Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 11:29 am We are most of the way there. Aliveness Test passed, Functional Test next. That will be complete in an hour or two. The EVA went marvelously well. Lots of applause when the last connector was mated. http://www.edcheung.com/job/sm3b/sm3b.htm | |
| ||||| Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 12:14 pm When do we find out if the "power back up" is successful | |
| ||||| Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 12:28 pm I'll post a message when the Functional Test is declared successful. That will complete the test. Right now we are waiting for sunrise to do battery charging, which is one of the PCU's function. http://www.edcheung.com/job/sm3b/sm3b.htm | |
| ||||| Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 01:23 pm It is done. We have a good PCU. Long live HST. http://www.edcheung.com/job/sm3b/sm3b.htm | |
| ||||| Wednesday, March 06, 2002 - 01:32 pm Thanks Ed for the updates. It reminds me of when I worked on Hubble at GSFC. | |
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