using balloons and rockets astronomers
have successfully launched telescopes
into earth orbit above the distorting
effects of the atmosphere to explore
deep space nASA has had great success
with robotic probes like Voyager that
have observed and sent back images of
our solar system NASA and its partner
the European Space Agency are now on the
verge of launching a huge optical
Observatory into orbit around the earth
Hubble Space Telescope will see objects
even near the edge of the known universe
with ten times finer detailed and
possible from the ground at the heart of
the observatory is an eight-foot mirror
grounded near perfection when pointed at
an object the mirror collects light and
sends it to six instruments various
satellites and ground stations relay the
instruments information to the Space
Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore
Maryland viewing screens will allow
scientists to make real-time
observations at the same time a
tremendous amount of data will be
generated according to dr. Eric JSON
we're talking about a huge amount of
information in fact we colloquially
refer to this as drinking from a
firehose in order to help astronomers
plan observations the Space Telescope
Institute has the largest star catalogue
in the world containing 19 million
celestial objects the catalog was made
by scanning over 1,400 photographic
plates of the entire sky the plates are
also stored in a giant database so
astronomers can call up a region like
the Andromeda galaxy and manipulate the
images with false color
in our lifetime Space Telescope should
match the discoveries made since the
beginning of astronomy we hope to see in
the words of galileo galilei wondrous
things those were the words that he used
in 1609
we want to see star systems we'll want
to see images of the planets but in
particular space dollars will be
designed to look out into deep space to
study deep space astrophysics to arrive
to a realm that we've not yet been able
to study well
in 1990 shuttle discovery launched
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope the most
powerful Observatory ever built able to
image detail up to 15 billion miles away
Hubble has provided astronomers with a
clearer window to our universe soon
after Hubble was deployed scientists
discovered an aberration in the 94 inch
primary mirror even so the huge space
porn telescope has been returning a
steady stream of new information
particularly with the aid of computer
enhancement similar processing has been
used on data from other spacecraft like
Voyager which traveled past the planets
enhancement now brings up more detail
for Hubble scientists this is the
telescope's original image of a galaxy
52 million light-years from Earth as it
is cleaned up to its final version here
light pulses in a straight line between
Earth and a distant quasar years ago
Albert Einstein suggested that if a
uniform object crossed the path light
would bend into a ring but if the object
were not uniform the ring would break up
into four patches known as the Einstein
cross Hubble's imagery confirmed this
part of Einstein's theory of relativity
a bull also showed scientists a
celestial X marking the exact spot of a
black hole with the possible mass of 1
million of our Suns astronauts are
already training to fix the Hubble
mirror problem during a shuttle service
call scheduled for late 1993 by
substituting a special component in the
telescope the aberration will be
repaired called co-star this corrective
optics package contains a series of
mirrors that work like contact lenses to
restore Hubble close to its full imaging
potential in a clean room at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center technicians
also practice removing the spacecraft
star tracker which helps point the
telescope in the meantime I will
continue to send back fine detail of the
planets faraway galaxies black hole and
distant stars rewriting the textbooks on
how we view our universe
yeah
the science team knew that the best from
the newly restored hubble space
telescope was yet to come
the purpose of today's press conference
is to present and explain the first
images from the hubble space telescope
and i'm happy to announce today that
after its launch now in 1990 some of its
earlier disappointments
the trouble with hubble is over it's
often said that a picture is worth a
thousand words
in fact these corrected images are as
perfect as engineering can achieve and
as the laws of physics will allow
for NASA at the beginning it had been
tough to be the first then tougher still
to stay at the front and now toughest of
all to come from behind
we appreciate your frankness ambling for
the planning ship it's nice to know
we're really working on yeah better
educated or four-door
our pleasure I've never seen the
teamwork I've seen in this program
people have pulled together from all the
Centers Johnson at Kennedy Space Center
Goddard headquarters contractors because
I think deep down people realize because
of what what's happened this program is
part of history
to fix a telescope already in space the
team had to diagnose the optics problem
from the flawed images then build
replicas of the telescope to develop
test and retest the corrective optics
and replacement hardware it was really
exciting to see all the work that I had
been manifested in in the tests because
I spent you know two years preparing to
actually test the co-star in the system
functional and to have it all work
quickly unplanned was really wonderful
had to build mock-ups of every part of
this of the servicing mission including
the science instruments and complete
mock-ups of the equipment going into the
cargo bay of the shuttle what we're
doing now is verifying that the camera
is going to play properly with the rest
of HST that it's going to fit into HST
and that it's also going to be commanded
properly by the ground system and talk
to the computers onboard the HST
properly to prepare the astronauts and
servicing teams planned modified and
endlessly practiced each task using a
variety of training techniques
every time we set out to think through a
task during every step along the way we
go well what if that doesn't work what
if this happens what if that happened
and for each one of those what ifs we
need to have a plan before the actual
spacewalks astronaut story Musgrave
predicted what they would face for every
sub task I've looked at the things which
are the most delicate and required the
most really critical care the rate
sensing units a place in name on and
they have very narrow tolerance placing
those on the tooth pins and then the
solar rays I think it is making you like
Snickers wide field planetary theory
it's taken the mirror off in a very and
very careful way and then protected and
that optics which is right out there in
front of your face the coasts are as big
as a telephone booth very squared it's
gotta go into the Ray that's exactly all
the careful planning really paid off
during the mission the crew and ground
team even had prepared for surprises
when a broken solar array wouldn't roll
up for storage Kathy Thornton jettison
it as the Sun rose
it was caught like a sail on the wind of
the shuttles gentle
the mission sharpened Hubble's sight and
NASA's vision
we're actually building up our abilities
to work in space we're laying the
groundwork for the future
the Hubble is our eyes that's how we're
going to see back to the beginning of
the universe that's how we tell what's
happened to us in the past and where our
universe is going in the future
so in some sense when we look at an
object like this we're looking at the
future of our own solar system
and the same fear well it's possible at
all this fact
moving material out there yeah and the
same day well it's possibly the coldest
actual was produced by a yeah in fact
you could have particular future
producing us in the structure
that item look at those little tiny
knots that's because this represents the
last stage in the evolution of ordinary
stars a star like our own like our own
Sun is going to go through an episode of
this sort in maybe 5 6 billion years
from now
so in some sense when we look at an
object like this we're looking at the
future of our own solar system if this
star did have planets they would have
been vaporized early in the stages of
ejection they're not there anymore it
was clearly the best image of planetary
that I have certainly ever been involved
with and that I've really ever seen and
I remember stopping on the way home from
looking at this and saying we've got to
get a bottle of champagne and and have a
toast because this is a spectacular
image
I think it's beautiful for the same
reason that it's interesting which is
all the symmetry I think that this is
probably the most exciting image of a
planetary that I have seen because of
the level of complexity in detail that
we see here
it's really quite unprecedented other
objects are simply messy but this one
has got all sorts of fascinating
structure well this is a planetary
nebula planetary nebula is sort of a
misnomer actually it's sort of gas cloud
the fireworks that are produced when a
fairly ordinary star reaches the end of
its life and throws its outer layers
into space the reason they're called
planetary nebulae is because in the last
century when people were using small
telescopes some of the small round ones
looked a little bit like the planets
Uranus and Neptune in our solar system
and that's how they picked up that name
but really it is the cloud of gas which
is produced at the end of the star's
lifetime what we see here is a record of
a multi-stage process the actual loss of
the outer layers of the star turns out
to be enormous ly complicated we can see
that at the present time
the star is blowing a bubble it has a a
wind which is flowing rapidly into space
and this tenuous fast wind is sweeping
up the nebula material and constructing
a bubble but outside of that we see this
ring of knots which must correspond to
some earlier stage rejection and further
beyond the boundary of the picture that
we see there's actually an outer halo
furthermore the Jets that we can see in
some of the images represent the very
rapid phase of mass loss which occurs
after the main structures have been
formed so it's an extremely complicated
process for a specialist like myself
there's an enormous amount of detail
that's going to tell us about many
things it's going to tell us about the
kinds of elements that are created in
the last stages of the star's life it's
going to tell us about the ejection
process itself
it raises interesting questions about
how these Jets can form in the last
stages and then change their direction
suddenly but from the point of view of
just the average person I suppose you
could say that it's interesting because
it's a window on our own future it tells
us what is going to happen to a star
like the Sun in a very long time
or tell me what you're putting in I'm
just I've got it removed okay
if you don't go with mark and start
thinking about the positions that stick
this puppy in bad thing about this is
Ron you can cheat and look through it
yeah I understand but you wouldn't do
that come from it I know look at the big
picture here okay looks fairly looks
little to me yeah looks good
okay this dropped me down now mark a
little bit gently don't take me any
forward so I can keep pressure in it
here just dropped me straight down okay
now I can apply pressure back here now
I've got it on the handrail okay let's
go down barn let's just wait till I get
in position now Jen okay okay I've got
it I want to get over on this left side
now I've got it I've got it good hand on
it you can even let go if you have to
want to watch this guy but drop me down
mark can you see the guide rail up there
yep that's what I'm getting down to yes
I can
okay coming down mark you're coming down
mark okay I'm happy Stephen in okay we
we're back at the end of the forward
guide rail we've got to lift it up a
little bit to get onto the Afghan realm
okay come on down then mark well I can
move inside and help with this
okie-dokie
Oh key whoa here I come
are you clear and I'm gonna help you
here okay I got it
okay mark keep bringing me out keep some
pressure on the door Jeff here
possibility that it's cocked slightly
okay okay story yes remember and Cathy
when you get about five foot out you
want to we want to stop take a picture
okay no Katie you want to put a tether
on it I could have a tether okay okay
okay my clear tonight right yes right
level yes you got it okay she's coming
straight out have at it
okay it's clear okay I want a picture
time here no I think you wants you out a
little further b5 quarter-turn t-handles
yes - Cathy you're going to translate
the HSP to the or to the F fixture at
the or you carrier and temporaries throw
the HST by engaging the one pit pin on
the top fork now this does not slide in
sideways a slide in from the top yes
ma'am you got it in right you could if
you were to pick it down now you're okay
Teddy that's the way you want it to go
in I'm talking about down on the a
fixture hook yeah I got it okay
and if you could roll me 90 to my left
Martin and then go down I'll come in on
my side
and if well that is if the RMS is going
to clear that forward picture I won't be
able to tell you that pain going after
about a foot okay an outboard I need to
go out for port
if you need me to scoot over there Katie
Southport after a couple feet
a story you can tell you're gonna
the other glove is better actually
reach reach down and get those pop - but
if you are into a high doesn't really
matter because this is where we would
take you from there on you would
Saturday see if it is you think far to a
higher to start the GC
yeah let me do that no statute needs to
be over that's around to the right
doesn't want them stanchion
can we open the radial site
okay well that's okay we're positioned
basically over it
he's me and Claude
you can have to look there's riding up
on the rail and I need to lift up just a
little bit to get it up on this rail
down here
no Katie can you transition to the LMA
oh yeah you ought to be able to help
down there now Katie yeah but I can't
push much okay hold on a second
bring your end out a little Katie we're
pitching in at the bottom you're way
ahead of me down there hey bring me down
Claud a foot down Claud thank you wait a
second here tone that's a good stuff on
something here where I can help
okay let's stop right there all right
budget okay now drop me down Claud where
I get more on the seat you can't push
any I can't push me Paul here hang on a
sec hey bring me up Claud stop they meet
up Klaus stop we had a strap hang in
there
that's Matt be real world what's your
hang-up from who knows bring me up a
little more of is in the way they bring
me up cloth stop
how they say we're okay now Katie can
you look at it
see y'all eyes if we're okay presently
the technicians the psychic crew are
attempting to align the co-star into the
extender rails and adjusting for pitch
roll and yaw make sure that the co-star
is correctly aligned with the rails
prior to inserting into the - mechanical
simulator well they'll have to make sure
that the rails capture the co-star guide
blocks and rails and so that
when the co-star is correctly aligned it
will insert all the way into the OTA in
space
three two one and liftoff of the space
shuttle Discovery with the Hubble Space
Telescope our window on the universe in
1990 ISA and NASA launched the most
powerful astronomical tool ever built
the Hubble Space Telescope since then
astronomers have been making
observations which are at the forefront
of space science in December 1993 space
shuttle Endeavour will link up with
Hubble in orbit to carry out a space
mission never before attempted
astronauts will make several spacewalks
during which they will service the key
components one of our first tasks will
be to replace the solar arrays the power
behind the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble has some 50,000 individual solar
cells mounted on its - 12 meter long
solar arrays each cell receives energy
from the sun's rays and converts them
into electricity since the launch in
1990 the arrays have successfully
produced a reliable 4.5 to 5 kilowatts
of output this electricity is used to
power the telescope's scientific
instruments and communication systems
the cells are glued to a blanket which
expands and contracts as the spacecraft
orbits in and out of the Sun radiation
and other processes such as atomic
oxygen erosion however gradually degrade
spacecraft and in particular the
sensitive solar sounds after four years
in space the arrays are coming to the
end of their useful lifespan and like a
further 49 key components of Hubble they
were designed and are ready to be
serviced and upgraded while necessary
though scheduled servicing mission has
given ISA the opportunity to redesign
the solar arrays in order to cure a
curious problem extremely rapid
temperature changes during the sunrise
and sunset together with some friction
effects are causing uneven movement of
the system of pulleys and Springs these
compensate for the expansion and
contraction of the blanket additional
movement is being detected at the drum
for the blanket is anchored at the same
time the temperature changes cause the
side supporting booms to bend
this stick-slip movement causes a slight
jitter at the observing end of the
telescope the pointing control system
when Hubble observes a distant celestial
object it does so with minut accuracy
the jitter although very small has an
obvious effect imagine looking through a
pair of binoculars whilst traveling
along a bumpy road up to now engineers
have minimized the effect of the jitter
by using special computer software but
this takes up valuable memory capacity
within HSTs onboard computers to make
this capacity available for scientific
purposes and to correct the stick-slip
movement a deceptively simple and
elegant design solution has been found
the mechanisms linking the supporting
booms to the array blankets have been
replaced with simpler structures the
blanket is wrapped around the end boom
and when the Sun rises and sets a system
of Springs allows the blanket to expand
and contract at the drum a simple brake
mechanism is used to keep it still the
side support booms are covered by a
special concertina like thermal shield
which almost eliminates bending by
greatly reducing the day-night
temperature differential apart from
these modifications British Aerospace
Space Systems eases european solar array
contractor has used the same basic
flight proven design for the replacement
solar arrays at British Aerospace the
solar arrays are being checked out
during their deployment on a water test
bed to minimize the effects of rent this
is the final test before their launch in
December and also a chance for five of
the seven Shuttle Endeavor astronauts to
get to know the mechanics involved in
deploying the array my role during this
exchange the solar arrays will be to
support the extra vehicle activity of my
American colleagues by moving crew
members at the tip of the arm to the
proper location to do their job to pick
up the solar arrays the solar array
carrier in the cargo bay remember and
bring them to the place of work to fix
the solar arrays on the
on the hubble space telescope and of
course before doing that we'll have to
remove the old solar arrays and put them
in the cargo bay the new design and
replacement of the solar arrays is a key
element and the first service mission of
the ether NASA space telescope this and
future planned missions will continue to
enhance the high sensitivity needed to
observe distant stars and galaxies
the Hubble Space Telescope the largest
most sophisticated space astronomical
observatory ever launched by NASA it's
data has already rewritten much of what
we thought we knew about our universe
launched in April of 1990 it carries
five scientific instruments to look at
the universe in both visible light and
the ultraviolet wavelengths one of those
instruments the goddard high-resolution
spectrograph or G hrs for short was
built by Ball corporation's aerospace
and communications group in Boulder
Colorado during orbital checkout however
a flaw was discovered in the telescope's
primary mirror that blurred the images
enough to reduce the image quality to
some instruments and require computer
enhancements it was determined that the
giant 94 inch circular mirror had an
edge that was one ten thousandth of an
inch too low the telescope had been
designed for on-orbit maintenance and
repair over its 15-year life including
replacement of instruments but the giant
mirror was another story then a group of
scientists including optical experts at
ball developed a design for an
instrument that might correct the flaw
when NASA decided to build this
instrument ball was chosen as the prime
contractor balls aerospace group
produced the instrument called co-star
in just 26 months about half the time
considered routine for a space
instrument of its size and complexity
co-star is short for corrective optics
Space Telescope axial replacement if all
goes as planned space shuttle astronauts
will capture the telescope and perform a
variety of tasks on orbit one of those
will be installing co-star once inserted
into place co-star will extend five
pairs of mirrors into the light path
between the flawed mirror and three
other instruments in each pair the first
mirror images the distorted light onto
the second mirror the second mirror is
designed to correct the flaw in the
telescope's primary mirror but by far
the most demanding part of this mission
will follow the crew of Endeavour
astronauts also will have to install new
solar panels a new wide field planetary
camera and install an electronics repair
kit on the G hrs that's why in March of
1993 the crew came
two balls Boulder Colorado operations
for some visual and hands-on training
with co-star ng hrs the astronauts
inspected co-star and discussed how to
handle and install it as well as testing
the tools they will use they also gained
experience with the electronics kit for
the GH RS the upcoming space telescope
servicing mission will no doubt be one
of the most exciting and challenging
ever attempted and Boulder Colorado
people will be playing a major role
after launching it into space NASA and
the nation realized the hubble space
telescope had a perfectly smooth yet
flawed mirror the NASA teams challenge
find the prescription and restore
precision optics on a spacecraft already
flying to fly what you test and test
what you fly would be easier if the
telescope were back on Earth but landing
and relaunching could contaminate the
telescope or damage it through vibration
NASA couldn't test the new corrective
optics in the actual telescope so to
make sure the optics will work the team
had to determine the condition of Hubble
in space and replicate that on the
ground one independent review panel used
Hubble images to determine the precise
shape of the flawed primary mirror and
the prescription to fix it another team
had to verify that the corrective optics
will work teams had to test two optical
packages the replacement wide field
planetary camera and the corrective
optics for the other instruments called
co-star engineers built several
independent analyzers to test that they
had replicated what the Hubble telescope
does to light an independent team here
at Ball Aerospace measured both sets of
optics then we measured the measuring
tools for mechanical testing engineers
built a simulator at Goddard Space
Flight Center using the same precision
equipment that built Hubble originally
the corrective optics and the new camera
attachments were installed so that their
locations duplicate the telescope
attachments within six thousandths of an
inch the thickness of a piece of paper
the clearances are even tighter in the
simulator than they will be on the real
telescope to assure a margin of safety
to replicate Hubble during electrical
tests of the corrective optics package
and the new camera an electrical test
facility was built with the same
schematics as the original telescope and
it too was audited by an independent
team all three optical mechanical and
electrical were merged together in a
test of the whole system data from the
tests were sent to the Space Telescope
Science Institute just the way data will
be sent from the telescope hardware has
been thoroughly tested on the ground the
Hubble servicing team is preparing for
contingencies but this mission is a
first so no one can predict everything
that could happen the real test will be
in space
you understand
yes ready
well neutral buoyancy and having been
EBA you get up there and you go out in
the payload Bay and you think you're
right back in the pool I mean it's just
as realistic as you can get and being
able to float around like you do in the
suit so that's the real advantage of it
because you can train almost exactly
like being in space you have a little
bit of drag from the water but you're
able to move around the bay test out the
tools we make them the tools neutrally
buoyant also so you don't have a lot of
a lot of weight and it just gets you
very well prepared to do the job in
orbit well I think everyone remembers
the last Hubble repair mission and what
we're doing right now is we're going
through a series of possible tasks that
they're gonna do on a second servicing
mission so we're trying to do is see if
we need new tools new equipment and
that's the real reason we're here is see
if we have any long lead items to get
ready for that second repair mission and
then later on probably by the end of
this year they're gonna decide exactly
what tasks we're gonna do and the next
series of runs and on in the next year
we'll be specifically looking at those
tasks and training the crew to do that