The Euclid space telescope, recently launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), is experiencing some problems during the commissioning phase. ESA officials announced that they fixed the problem with the Euclid space telescope with a software update.
Euclid space telescope becomes obsolete with software update
Problems with the Precision Orientation Sensor were noted to prevent the telescope from locking on to the stars it is supposed to use as a guide to ensure it is pointed in the correct direction. ESA underlined that the navigation system has returned to its previous state thanks to the new software.
After the new software was installed, the telescope was tested for 10 days and managed to find guide stars as expected. The telescope is in orbit around the sun at the Lagrange L2 point and is designed to study the dark universe, namely dark matter and dark energy. To do this, Euclid observes the entire night sky to measure the shapes of galaxies and create a 3D map of dark matter in the universe.
“Our industrial partners Thales Alenia Space and Leonardo went back to the drawing board and revised the way the Precision Guidance Sensor identifies stars,” Euclid spacecraft operations manager Micha Schmidt said in a statement. “After great effort and in record time, they provided us with new firmware to be installed on the spacecraft.” He stated:
Euclid will enter the final phase of commissioning before beginning its scientific operations. It is estimated that ESA will soon accelerate its work to observe the dark side of space.