washington the hubble space telescope which has been peering into the universe for more than 30 years has been down for the past few days nasa said fridaythe problem is a payload computer that stopped working last sunday the us space agency saidit insisted the telescope itself and scientific instruments that accompany it are in good healththe payload computers purpose is to control and coordinate the science instruments and monitor them for health and safety purposes nasa saidan attempt to restart it on monday failednasa said initial evidence pointed to a degrading computer memory module as the source of the computer probleman attempt to switch to a backup memory module also failedthe technology for the payload computer dates back to the 1980s and it was replaced during maintenance work in 2009launched in 1990 the hubble space telescope revolutionized the world of astronomy and changed our vision of the universe as it sent back images of the solar system the milky way and distant galaxiesa new and more powerful one called the james webb space telescope is scheduled to be deployed late this year it is designed to peer deeper into the cosmos than ever before