NASA will attempt what has been described as a “risky” fix for the Hubble Space Telescope after weeks of troubleshooting following an urgent shutdown.
Spacecraft have a tendency to use tried-and-tested technology plus some of Hubble’s personal computers date back again to the 1970s. The telescope’s payload computer is a custom-designed NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 developed in 1974. This machine stopped communicating with the telescope’s main computer and caused a “safe mode” shutdown on 13th June.
Since that time, NASA engineers have been conducting tests and switching …