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The NASA Astronaut story Musgrave moves during the use of the Solar array panel on the Hubble-Waterpaum Telescope during the final of five STS-61-wing dreams on December 9, 1993 in the deployment of the solar array panels on the Hubble Space Telescope. | Credit: NASA
The Hubble world space telescope is a masterpiece of engineering and human ingenuity. Hubble is comparable in size and weight with a large school bus, but his contributions to science and astronomy could fill libraries.
Hubble is not only one of the first -class sources on earth for absolutely incredible, extraordinary pictures, but also proof of human curiosity and determination. The telescope has been in operation for over 30 years, has been subjected to a total of five maintenance missions and provided almost 250 terabyte data in contributions to our understanding of the universe.
The scientists started working on ideas for a large space telescope in orbit by the end of the 1960s, but it would take almost a decade for the plans for lobby and refineries to take lobby work and sophistication before the project was approved by the US Congress. It took almost half a decade after the telescope got its official name – after the famous American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Due to the loss of Challenger in January 1986 and the following break of the Space Shuttle program, Hubble waited five years before reaching the orbit.
Mission
STS-31 Crew:
Loren J. Shrivercommander
Charles F. Boldenpilot
Steven A. HawleyMission specialist
Bruce McCandlessMission specialist
Kathryn D. SullivanMission specialist
Hubble was built with a number of instruments on board, including the wide field planetary camera (WFPC), the high -resolution Goddard spectrographer (GHRS), the fainting object camera (focus), the powerful object spectrograph (FOS) and the high -speed photometer (HSP).
Hubble was launched on April 24, 1990, which was dammed up in the discovery of Space Shuttle in Frachtbucht. STS-31 was the 10th start of Discovery and it was the 35th Space shuttle mission as a whole.
Related: Space Shuttle of NASA: The first reusable spaceship
One day after reaching the orbit (April 25), the STS-31 crew Hubble used and then spent most of her mission to put the telescope into operation. Discovery returned to Earth on April 29 and left Hubble in an orbit of 612 kilometers of 380 miles, where she was able to impair humanity with the secrets of the universe.
At least that should happen. But the first pictures beamed back from Hubble to Earth -the 1.5 billion dollar -Dollar -Environment telescope of NASA, which lasted three decades to achieve space.
In June 1990, NASA announced the discovery of a spherical aberration on Hubbles Primary Mirror due to a 2-micron error in the curvature of the primary mirror of the telescope An-ETWA 1/50 the width of human hair. Although small, the defect made the telescope for astronomers mostly useless. Fortunately, Hubble was designed as useful, and the best heads of NASA took over the task.
Maintenance mission 1
STS-61 Crew:
Richard CoveyMissionary commander
Kenneth Bowersoxpilot
Kathryn ThorntonMission specialist
F. Story MusgraveMission specialist
Claude NicollierMission specialist
The Hubble engineers specially developed the telescope to be updated. The large body has handrails for astronauts to carry out maintenance and modular components to facilitate upgrades with the development of technology. This enabled NASA to design and plan corrections in order to put Hubble back into operation after her catastrophic start.
The STS-61 astronauts on board the first maintenance mission from Hubble (SM1) spent more than 35 hours in a total of five space walks or Evas (extrave-hikular activities) over the course of so many days to complete their planned upgrades. They installed the corrective optics space telescope axial replacement unit (Costar) instead of the HSP – similar to Hubble to get new glasses in order to bring its blurred view into focus. The WFPC was replaced by the WFPC2, which was equipped with internal correction optics, and Hubble’s solar arrangements and gyroscopes have been improved to improve the tracking ability of the telescope.
The SM1 mission put Hubble back into the operational status and therefore generated one of the best -known pictures of the telescope.
Related: 30 years ago, Astronauts saved the Hubble world space telescope
Pictures of the M100 Galactic core before, left and after the first mission for Hubble maintenance that show the improved optical properties. | Credit: NASA
Maintenance mission 2
STS-82 Crew:
Kenneth BowersoxMissionary commander
Scott Horowitzpilot
Joseph TannerMission specialist
Steven HawleyMission specialist
Gregory HarbaughMission specialist
Mark LeeMission specialist
Steven SmithMission specialist
Hubble’s second maintenance mission, SM2, was less reparable and focused more on what engineers had intended than they had designed the telescope: upgrades and increasing performance.
Discovery was launched in February 1997 on STS-82 with two new instruments for Hubble. The space telescopic image spectrograph (STIS) and the near the infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer (Nicmos) replaced the GHR and FOS from Hubble. The swap expanded the vision of the telescope on almost infrared wavelengths. The mission was also successful to negotiate some of the humiliated data recorder from Hubble and some other secondary hardware.
Maintenance mission 3a
STS-103 Crew:
Curtis BrownMissionary commander
Scott Kellypilot
Jean-Francois CllervoyMission specialist
Michael FoaleMission specialist
John GrunsfeldMission specialist
Steven SmithMission specialist
Claude NicollierMission specialist
What was originally planned in June 2000 as Servicing Mission 3 (SM3) was divided into two missions: an emergency SM3A mission was created for Space Shuttle Discovery, and STS-102 was added to the starting manifest for December 1999.
Many of the mission’s space spaces exceeded eight hours and made them the longest Evas in the shuttle story. During this expanded stints navigated NASA astronauts Steven Smith and John Grunsfeld all six gyroscopes within the telescope rate sensor (RSUS) and installed a new transmitter and data recorder.
During another Eva, the NASA astronauts Michael Foale and Claude Nicollier replaced the main computer from Hubble and increased its processing speed by almost 20 times. They have also improved the fine Hubble guide sensors.
Maintenance mission 3b
STS-109 crew:
Scott AltmanMissionary commander
Duane Careypilot
John GrunsfeldPayload commander and mission specialist
Nancy CurrieMission specialist
Richard LinnhanMission specialist
James NewmanMission specialist
Michael MassiminoMission specialist
The ACS from Hubble replaced the aging and added ten times the imagery compared to its predecessor. Astronauts on SM3B were also commissioned to replace hubbles solar arrays that had been worn by years of radiation and rubble.
Although the new Hubble solar arrangements provided between 20% and 30% more electricity. They also replaced Hubble’s Power Control Unit (PCU) and added a new cooling system to increase Nikmos’s lifespan.
Maintenance mission 4
STS-125 crew:
Scott AltmanMissionary commander
Gregory Johnsonpilot
Michael GoodMission specialist
Megan McArthurMission specialist
Andrew FeutelMission specialist
Michael MassiminoMission specialist
John GrunsfeldMission specialist
Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched on May 11, 2009 with two new instruments for the space telescope: the Cosmic Origins spectrographer (COS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
When astronauts replaced the FOC during SM3B, the Costar instrument, which served as Hubble glasses, became superfluous. COS replaced Costar during SM4 and became a supplement to STIS. If the ultraviolet spectrum detection falls off COS, StIS can absorb wavelengths through optical to close infrared light in ultraviolet. The astronauts also managed to repair STIS that had not been functional since August 2004 when a failure of their power supply put in the “safe mode”.
Some of the best known pictures of Hubble, including the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, are attributed to the ACS. In 2007, however, it also suffered an electrical failure. The remedies for STIS and ACs were similar in the tasks that had to do astronauts to complete their repairs, but were very unlike how and where the engineers expected to carry out astronauts to maintain Hubble.
The NASA astronauts – including John Grunsfeld, who had already participated in three missions for Hubble Servicing, trained for two years to develop the tools, strategies and techniques they need to successfully repair the space telescope for the last time.
Hubble today
In the more than one and a half decades, since astronaut Hubble recently visited, the telescope continued to grant amazing views of the cosmos, but its operation was not without hiccups. With the age of Hubble, the NASA mission managers tightened their operational restrictions and derived strategies for the observatory in order to continue working despite several problems.
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When new gyros were installed during the aged and missing maintenance missions, technicians build deeper edges into the parameters of the components. Today the telescope has two functioning gyros and was shifted to a one-gyro mode to keep the other as a backup. This shows restrictions for some of science and observations that Hubble can make, but it has made it possible for the famous scope to further examine the secrets of the universe.
NASA hopes that the new operating parameters will extend Hubble’s lifespan to the 2030s. However, this will probably be the end of the street for the space telescope, functioning instruments or not. Without an upswing the height through a visiting room
