Hubble Space Telescope is a masterwork of engineering and human simplicity. Hubble is comparable to a large school bus size and weight, but its contribution to science and astronomy can fill libraries.
Not only is one of the premium sources of the Hubble Earth, which is absolutely incredible, out-off-the-this world, it is also a will for human curiosity and determination. The telescope has been in operation for over 30 years, passed through a total of five servicing missions and gave about 250 terabytes of data to our understanding of the universe.
Scientists began working on ideas for a large space telescope in the class by the end of the 1960s, but would take a decade of a decade lobbying and refining plans before the US Congress approves funds for the project. It was almost half decade later, before the telescope got its official name – after the famous American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Then, in January 1986, due to the disadvantage of the challenger and the upcoming stagnation of the space shuttle program, will wait five years before reaching the Hubble class.
Deployment
STS -31: 24-29 April, 1990
STS-31 Crew:
Loren J. ShriersCommander
Charles F. Boldenpilot
Steven A. HoleMission specialist
Bruce maccondlesMission specialist
Catherine D. SulivanMission specialist
The Hubble was built with several devices, including the Wide Field Planetary Camera (WFPC), Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), unconscious object camera (FOC), unconscious object spectrographs (Fos) and high speed photome (HSP).
Hubble was launched on April 24, 1990, which was inside the cargo bay of space shuttle discovery. The STS-31 was the 10th launch of Discovery, and it was a total of 35th Space Shuttle Mission.
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The day after the Orbit (25 April), the STS -31 crew deployed Hubble, and then spent most of the time to bring the telescope into operation. Discovery returned to Earth on 29 April, leaving the Hubble in a orbit of 380 miles (612 km) in a orbit, where it can begin to awaken humanity with the mysteries of the universe.
At least, this should have been. But the first images returned to Earth from Hubble – NASA’s $ 1.5 billion space telescope took three decades to reach the space – blurred.
In June 1990, NASA announced the discovery of a spherical aberration on the primary mirror of Hubble due to the 2-macron mistake in the primary mirror of the telescope of binoculars-about the width of a human hair 1/50. Although small, defects made the binoculars mostly useless for astronomers. Thankfully, the Hubble was designed to be serviceable, and NASA’s best mind took into the task.
Servicing Mission 1
STS -61: 2-13 December, 1993
NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavor was launched on 2 December 1993 on STS -61 mission. The goal was to fix the weak space telescope so that it could begin to look directly.
STS-61 Crew:
Richard coveMission commander
Kenneth Boversoxpilot
Catherine ThorntonMission specialist
F. Story MusgrevMission specialist
Claude NicholierMission specialist
Hubble engineers designed specially upgraded telescopes. There are handrails for astronauts to maintain maintenance and modular components to facilitate upgradation with the development of technology in its large body. This allowed NASA to design and fix the plan to bring Hubble back into operation after its disastrous start.
In an attempt during the first servicing mission (SM1) of Hubble, the STS-61 astronauts spent a total of five spacewalks, or EVAS (ExtraveHicular activity) during several days to meet their planned upgrades. He installed corrective optics space telescope excellent replacement (Costar) Unit in place of HSP – to get a new pair of glasses to bring Hubble into attention to his blurred vision. The WFPC was replaced with the WFPC2, which came up with internal corrective optics, and upgraded Hubble’s solar arrays and gyroscopes to improve the trekking capacity of the telescope.
The SM1 mission restored the Hubble in operational position, and as a result, produced one of the most prestigious images of binoculars.
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Servicing Mission 2
STS -82: February 11-21, 1997
Discovery Launched on 11 February 1997 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the STS -82 mission from Complex -39A.
STS-82 Crew:
Kenneth BoversoxMission commander
Scott Horovitzpilot
Joseph TannerMission specialist
Steven HaleMission specialist
Gregory HarbaghMission specialist
Mark LeeMission specialist
Steven smithMission specialist
Hubble’s second servicing mission, SM2, was less revaluation and more focused on what engineers intended when they designed to serve telescopes: promoting upgradation and performance.
Discovery was launched in February 1997 at STS-82, with two new equipment for Hubble. Hubble’s GHR and Fos were replaced near Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STI) and Infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer (NICMOS). Swap expanded the vision of binoculars in a near-inflammatory wavelength. Some humiliated data recorders of Mission Hubble, as well as some other, were successful in doing some trading of secondary hardware.
Servicing Mission 3A
STS-103: 19-27 December 1999
The third mission of Discovery for Hubble was an unexpected. In November 1999, the fourth failure of six gyro failed to maintain the orientation of the telescope, sent to Hubble to a protective “safe mode”. The previous gairos had also failed, but to effectively collect science data, at least three needed to remain in work order.
STS-103 Crew:
Curtis brownMission commander
Scott kellypilot
Jean-Frankois ClarvoyMission specialist
Michael FailMission specialist
John GunsfeldMission specialist
Steven smithMission specialist
Claude NicholierMission specialist
Originally determined in the form of servicing mission 3 (SM3) in June 2000, was divided into two missions: an emergency SM3A mission for space shuttle discovery was created, and the STS-102 was added to the launch manifest for December 1999.
Many spacewalks of the mission exceeded eight hours, making them some of the longest EVAs in shuttle history. During the expanded stints navigating Hubble’s handrails, NASA astronaut Steven Smith and John Gronsfeld replaced all six gyroscopes inside the telescope rate sensor Unites (RSUS) and installed a new transmitter and data recorder.
During a separate Eva, NASA astronaut Michael Fole and Cloud Nicholier replaced the main computer of Hubble, increasing its processing speed by about 20 times. He also upgraded Hubble’s Fine Guidance Sensor.
Servicing Mission 3B
STS-109: 1-12 March 2002
SM3A and SM3’s partition in SM3B pushed back the prescribed maintenance for June 2000 by March 2002. Space Shuttle Colombia launched the STS-109 on 1 March, with the primary goal of distributing and installing advanced cameras for the survey (ACS).
STS-109 Crew:
Scott altmanMission commander
Duane kerrypilot
John GunsfeldPayload commander and mission specialist
Nancy curryMission specialist
Richard linenanMission specialist
James PneumonMission specialist
Michael MasiminoMission specialist
Hubble’s ACS replaced the aging FOC, which adds 10 times the imaging power compared to its predecessor. On SM3B, astronauts were also tasked to replace the solar arrays of Hubble, worn by years of radiation and debris.
However small, new solar arrays of Hubble provided between 20% and 30% more power. He also replaced Hubble’s Power Control Unit (PCU) and added a new cooling system to increase the lifetime of NICMOS.
Servicing Mission 4
STS-125: 11-24 May, 2009
STS-125 was the last mission of Hubble. With the space shuttle set to retire two years later, Hubble’s SM4 targeted to upgrade space telescope with technologies to finalize it in the 21st century.
STS-125 Crew:
Scott altmanMission commander
Gregory Johnsonpilot
Michael GoodMission specialist
Megan McArtherMission specialist
Andrew FestellMission specialist
Michael MasiminoMission specialist
John GunsfeldMission specialist
Space shuttle Atlantis was launched on May 11, 2009, took two new devices for Space Telescope: The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
When astronauts replaced the foc during SM3B, the coastar instrument that served as Hubble’s glasses became meaningless. COS replaced Costar during SM4 and became supplemented by STIS. Where the detection of the ultraviolet spectrum of COS stops detecting, stis can lift the ultraviolet wavelength through optical to close light. Astronauts also managed to repair the STI, which had become inactive since August 2004, when its power supply failure sent it to “safe mode”.
Some of the most reputed imagery of Hubble, including the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, is attributed to ACS. In 2007, however, it also faced an electrical failure. The remedies for STI and ACS were both similar to each other, which were similar to each other among the astronauts needed to perform their repair, but both were very dissatisfied as to how and where engineers expected astronauts to maintain hubbal.
NASA’s astronauts – including John Gunsfeld, who had already participated in three Hubble Services Missions – would need to successfully repair the space telescope last time to develop trained equipment, strategies and techniques for two years.
Hubble Today
In more than a decade more than a decade, since the last time astronauts visited Hubble, the telescope continued to provide amazing views of the universe, but has not been operating without its hiccups. As Hubble has aged, NASA mission managers have tightened their operating obstacles, despite many issues to achieve strategies for the observatory to continue functioning.
As the new Gyros were established and failed during the service of the new Gyros, the technicians formed deep margins in the criteria of the components. Today, the telescope has two working gyro and has been transferred to one-gourd mode to preserve the other as a backup. It presents boundaries on some of science and comments can make Hubble, but the famous scope is allowed to continue investigating the secrets of the universe.
NASA hopes that the new operating parameters will expand Hubble’s life in the 2030s. However, this will probably be the end of the road for space telescope, working equipment or not. Without promoting its height from an upcoming spacecraft, the Hubble will take a dip in a lower and lower orbit and eventually burn in the Earth’s atmosphere by the mid -2030s.
