Current NASA HST controller design and performance

Abstract

Because of unexpected, thermally-induced disturbances originating in the Solar Arrays, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) initially was unable to meet its pointing error specifications of 0.007 arcseconds (RMS) for observations lasting from a few seconds to several hours; and there immdiately began the effort to pin point the mechanism causing the problem and to redesign the onboard controller to accomodate the disturbance. Now, after a series of controller modifications, the pointing errors are well within the specicifcation for all of the orbit except for short intervals during transitons in and out of the Earth's shadow. This paper presents a chronology of the redesign process and flight data showing the current pointing performance. There is also a brief discussion of the modifications to the replacement arrays that will be installed on the HST in early 1994.