The iconic Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is back online after entering “safe mode” after a “software bug”.
NASA announced that operations had resumed late last week, and the telescope returned to normal scientific operations on Friday.
On Sunday, the agency wrote in a release that its Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument was restored around 7 p.m. ET on March 13.
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NASA said that after the HST began the recovery process, the WFC3 crashed due to a lower-than-normal power supply voltage reading that eventually triggered an internal instrument protection.
Further analysis found that the voltage levels in the WFC3 power supplies have slowly decreased over time.
“The electronics experience colder temperatures when the hardware is turned off in safe mode. This factor, coupled with the power that the instrument components decrease when they are turned back on, contributed to the small voltage fluctuations that halt WFC3’s recovery operations,” explains NASA . “Further detailed analysis indicated that it would be safe to lower the low voltage limit slightly to avoid future interruption, and it would be safe to return the instrument to its scientific state.”
Other pre-observation activities and further tests will be conducted this week.
Safe Mode is a setting that places the telescope in a “stable configuration that suspends scientific observations” and positions the HST’s solar panels toward the sun to ensure its energy needs are being met.
The HST initially went into safe mode unexpectedly on Sunday, March 7.
The mission operations team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center later discovered that the software flaw was related to a recent improvement to the spacecraft aimed at helping offset the fluctuations of one of its gyroscopes.
The gyroscopes help rotate and lock the HST to new targets by measuring the speed at which the spacecraft is spinning.
“They found that the enhancement did not have permission to write to a specific location in computer memory, causing a problem with the main flight computer and then causing the spacecraft to enter a safe mode,” NASA wrote.
In addition, the team also found that the opening door at the top of the HST was not automatically closed. The door is designed as a “security” to protect the spacecraft’s interior from sun damage.
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Although several ground commands failed to close the door, the NASA crew were able to determine that the HST’s backup engine was indicating movement.
That motor is now set as the primary motor for the more than 30-year-old telescope.