Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph Instrument Handbook for Cycle 14
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph Instrument Handbook for Cycle 14 | |||||
| ||||||
2.1 STIS Unlikely to be Available During Cycle 14
On Tuesday, August 3, 2004, STIS suffered a failure of a 5-Volt power supply in its Side-2 electronics. This unit powers all the mechanisms in STIS, including the slit and grating wheels, the CCD shutter, etc. The STIS was idle at the time the failure occurred, so the light path was blocked to prevent potential exposure of the MAMA detectors to excessive light. Without the 5-volt power supply, these mechanisms cannot be moved. The Side-1 electronics suffered a short circuit in May 2001 and are currently not functioning. Since the two redundant sides are currently not working, STIS is unusable for the time being. While it is not impossible that further investigation will point out a way to restore STIS to a useful state, it is currently believed unlikely that STIS can be revived without physical servicing. All other science instruments and the observatory itself continue to function normally.
Shortly before this Handbook was finalized, the HST Project at Goddard Space Flight Center assembled a Failure Review Board (FRB) to determine the cause of the STIS failure and to recommend further testing and potential recovery options. We expect this process to continue until after this Handbook will be issued. The HST user community will be kept informed of the status of STIS via the STIS web site,
http://www.stsci.edu/hst/stis.
|
|||||
|
Space Telescope Science Institute http://www.stsci.edu Voice: (410) 338-1082 help@stsci.edu |