The Hubble Space Telescope is nearing its 35th birthday.
Imagine keeping a laser beam trained on a dime that’s 200 miles away. Now imagine doing that continuously for 24 hours, while riding a merry-go-round. Seem difficult? Well, that’s basically what the Hubble Space Telescope does.. This essentially means that the telescope will have to rely on just one of the several gyroscopes – devices that measure an object’s orientation in space – it normally uses to track and follow objects in space., the Hubble telescope launched in 1990 into low Earth orbit.
To keep track of its target and generate clear pictures, Hubble uses what aerospace engineers like me call attitude control systems. All spacecraft and aircraft have an attitude control system to help them point in the right direction.measuring the orientation of the spacecraft, a set of actuators – thrusters, reaction wheels or control moment gyroscopes – that move the spacecraft around, and a flight computer.
Hubble initially had six gyros: three main ones and three more as extras. But after more than 30 years in orbit,. But if you need at least three gyros – one per axis – to know where you are, how can Hubble figure out where it is with only one gyro?The clever answer that NASA engineers came up with is actually very simple. You can use other sensors on the telescope, such as magnetometers and star sensors, to make up for the lack of gyros.
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Is On The Fritz AgainI began my journalism career with Entrepreneur magazine with a focus on small business technology. As a freelance journalist, I’ve covered gadgets, geek culture, public schools, weird foods, transatlantic travel and Route 66.
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