4 ms·

Gyroscopes are in short supply on Hubble currently

• wongarsu 5y ago
  And that despite regular servicing back when we still had the Space Shuttle. Hubble started out with 6 gyroscopes, in 1996 they replaced four of them, by 1999 four had failed so they replaced all six, by 2009 three had failed again, so they replaced all six. Now they are again down to three, and one of the remaining ones has a defect that required some workarounds. The last three gyros are at least a new design that should last a bit longer.
  • pbhjpbhj 5y ago
    It sounds like a specific failure of gyros, what characteristic causes that failure? Are they more susceptible to cosmic rays or something? Do you know how they've mitigated that failure?
    • dangrossman 5y ago
      This webpage describes Hubble's gyros and the reason some of the earlier ones failed: https://esahubble.org/about/general/gyroscopes/ https://esahubble.org/about/general/gyroscopes/