NICMOS rules! That's it...t

News item at NASA HQ website:

The B-side power supply on the ACS has crapped out

Not good, since they switched to it when the A-side went flakey.
May be fixable. Or not.

PS: there was a 3pm telecon on the status of HST today
if anyone was on it, let me know what they said. If there was anything new.

Because of the servicing gap, and general old age, there are only three cameras working on the Hubble Space Telescope right now, and no real spectrographs.

The primary instrument is the Advanced Camera for Surveys, a wide field (by Hubble standards) very high spatial resolution optical camera. It is the primary instrument in use right now.

The old Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 is still function, mostly, one of the WF chips is flakey, but is kinda dated by now. There is still some stuff that could be done, but it'd be a real let down after getting used to ACS. In particular a lot of the proposals just sent in can't be done with WFPC, they need ACS capabilities.

The remaining camera is NICMOS the Near Infrared Camera and Multi Object Spectrograph.
It is very dated, but runs well. Its main strength is that it has good spatial resolution in the near-IR, although adaptive optics ground based telescopes are competitive. Sensitivity is ok, and field of view is tiny.

Oh, you can also do some nifty stuff with the Fine Guidance Sensors, mostly narrow field relative synoptic astrometry on bright targets. Nifty, but of limited interest to general astronomy.

Now, last summer the "A-side" power supply of the ACS broke, all the instruments have redundant electronics, so they switched it over, but the engineers must have seen something (common mode failure?) because the Space Telescope Science Institute asked for "backup proposals" using NICMOS (and WFPC2?) in case of total ACS failure. Out of cycle, which was strange.

Well, 2 days ago, ACS crashed and Hubble safemoded. They are now backup, but without ACS and running NICMOS and WFPC2 programs. The "alternate programs" solicited in November are also
slotted into the observing schedule for now (man, people who responded to that request could have really lucked out, the rest of us, not so much).

An Anomaly Review Board has been appointed and will make recommendation in early March.
They may try to run ACS through the flakey A-side electronics, or just give up on it.

This means most (75%?) of the people who hustled to propose for Hubble time for the current cycle, with the proposal due last friday, wasted their time, completely.
And, any multi-years ACS programs in progress are screwed.

Hubble funding comes with data, only. No data no money. There are no cushions or wiggle room.

Aaarrrrggghhhh!!!!

Hey, they could just take all that MODA funding and put it in the theory and archive program...

PS cryptic note now on STSCI web page (dynamic page, should update as they decide they better say something, since HQ let the cat out of the bag)

Here is the NASA HQ press release text:

Dwayne Brown/Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726/0668

Susan Hendrix/Ed Campion
Goddard Space Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-7745/0697

Jan. 29, 2007
RELEASE: 07-15

Engineers Investigate Issue on One of Hubble's Science Instruments

GREENBELT, Md. - NASA engineers are examining a problem related to the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the agency's Hubble Space Telescope.

On Jan. 27, the observatory entered a protective "safemode" condition at 7:34 a.m. EST. An initial investigation indicates the camera has stopped functioning, and the input power feed to its Side B electronics package has failed.

The instrument had been operating on its redundant electronics since June 30, 2006, when NASA engineers transitioned from the primary, Side A, electronics package due to a malfunction. Engineers currently are assessing the option to return ACS science operations to the primary electronics so that observations could resume in a reduced mode.

Hubble was recovered from safemode around 2 a.m. EST on Jan. 28, and science observations will resume this week using the remaining Hubble instruments: Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, Near Infrared Camera Multi-Object Spectrograph, and the Fine Guidance Sensors.

In November 2006, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore selected a set of backup non-ACS science programs for use in case of a future ACS anomaly. These programs now will be inserted into the science schedule to maintain a highly productive observing program.

An Anomaly Review Board was appointed on Jan. 29, to investigate the ACS anomaly. The board will perform a thorough investigation and assessment to decide the best course of action. The board is scheduled to present their findings and recommendations by March 2.

"It is too early to know what influences the ACS anomaly may have on Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission-4 planning" said Preston Burch, associate director/program manager for the Hubble Space Telescope. "It is important that the review board conduct a thorough investigation that will allow us to determine if there are any changes needed in the new instruments that will be installed on the upcoming servicing mission so that we can be sure of maximizing the telescope's scientific output. We are continuing to make excellent progress in our preparations for the servicing mission, which is presently targeted to fly in September 2008."

The Advanced Camera for Surveys is a third-generation instrument consisting of three electronic cameras, filters and dispersers that detect light from the ultraviolet to the near infrared. The instrument was installed during a March 2002, servicing mission. It was developed jointly by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colo.; and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble science operations. The Institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington.

For information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble