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takyon writes:

NASA brings a Hubble gyro back to life after a seven-year hibernation

After NASA's Hubble Space Telescope entered "safe" mode about two weeks ago, its operations team has been scrambling to bring a balky gyroscope back online. Now, the space agency says it believes it has fixed the problem.

[...] Hubble has three pairs of two gyroscopes, with each pair consisting of a primary and back-up gyroscope. Moreover, in each pair, one of the gyroscopes is of an "old" design, while the other is an "enhanced" (or newer) design intended to last for a longer period of time. After the failure this month, all three of the "old" design gyros have stopped working. This left NASA with two enhanced gyros that were functioning normally and one that had acted up more than seven years ago before being taken out of service at that time. The Hubble telescope can operate on just a single gyro, but three working ones are optimal for normal operations.

During the last two weeks, operators have been trying to bring this third, previously balky gyro back online. And they're now reporting some success. Within the gyroscope is a wheel spinning rapidly inside a sealed cylinder, and some blockage in the fluid around this cylinder appeared to be causing erroneously high spin rates. A series of maneuvers—including turns in opposite directions—seems to have cleared any blockage.

Previously: Hubble Telescope Placed into Safe Mode after Gyroscope Failure

Related: NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory Fixed

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