Hubble Space Telescope's Power Supply Problems Means Main Camera May Not Regain Full Functionality. (January 30, 2007)

    NASA reports that the Hubble Space Telescope's problem is with the power supply to the Advanced Camera for Surveys, or ACS has forced it to be shut down.  The instrument was installed by space shuttle astronauts in 2002 and was designed to work for five years, i.e. until March 2007. It greatly increased the telescope's visual reach and has taken the sharpest pictures of the birth of galaxies.

Although close to its "used by" date, Hubble manager Preston Burch says this is still a big loss because the instrument was in high demand by astronomers. "The ACS instrument comprises a large percentage of the total science that is done on Hubble. However, there is a lot great science that can be done with the other instruments. So we are in a replanning mode and we will probably get back 'on the air' later in the week." He added that NASA hopes to get the third channel of the ACS working by the end of February. It allows Hubble to detect ultraviolet wavelengths.

"It's a shame," says Adam Riess, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Riess had been using the ACS's wide-field camera to study distant supernovae, exploded stars that probe dark energy — the mysterious force pushing the Universe apart at an ever-faster rate. That work has now been sidelined, along with about two-thirds of the proposed scientific observations for the telescope.

Space shuttle astronauts are scheduled to upgrade Hubble for the fifth and last time around May or June 2008.

Burch said, "Certainly one of the things we will do is we will examine this failure and see if there are any implications to new science instruments that we are bringing up. I don't know, however, that we will be able to get sufficient information to be able to make any judgment about that."

According to Burch, as matters stand  the Hubble servicing mission will take place without any changes in plan.