usa today collegiate case study: the hubble legacy (complete case study)

8/9/2019 USA TODAY Collegiate Case Study: The Hubble Legacy (Complete Case Study)

1/23


2/23

The Hubble Legacy

Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division o Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

In collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

USA TODAY Education, in cooperation with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, brings you this six-part case study, whichexplores the human ingenuity, vision and expertise represented in the still-evolving story o the Hubble Space Tele-scope. Parts 1 through 5 o the study contain USA TODAY articles published throughout the almost two-decade historyo Hubble. The critical inquiry questions in part 6 o the study were designed by NASA subject matter exper ts, includingengineers who worked tirelessly to develop solutions to Hubble Telescope challenges and astronauts who implementedthose solutions on Hubble servicing missions. Those questions ask you to analyze and evaluate the ideas, history andinnovations discussed in the USA TODAY articles.

Overview

Part One: The Promise

Hubble: Astronomys time machineBy Paul HoverstenPublished: April 25, 1990

Part Three: The Solutions and the Stakes

Reviving Hubble and NASABy Paul HoverstenPublished: November 30, 1993

Part Five: The Future Awaits

Daring Hubble repair plan awaits goBy Traci WatsonPublished: October 31, 2006

Table of ContentsPart Two: The Problem

Poor eyesight is Hubbles latest troubleBy Paul HoverstenPublished: June 28, 1990

Part Four: The Rewards

The once-troubled Hubble fying highBy Todd HalvorsonPublished: December 26, 1995

Part Six: Critical Inquiry

Discussion QuestionsInternet ResourcesContributing Experts Bios


3/23

The Hubble LegacyPart One: The Promise

SUMMARY

The still-evolving story o the Hubble Space Telescope is onethat encompasses ar-sighted vision, engineering expertiseand the indisputable value o the can do attitude that hasresulted in remarkable scienti c discoveries.

When NASA rst started planning the Hubble Space Tele-scope in the late 1960s*, the Space Shuttle, which was origi-nally conceived to permit space-suited astronauts to repairand upgrade satellites, had not yet been built or fown . ForNASA to commit to design Hubble or astronaut servicingwas a huge leap o aith, similar to that made by PresidentKennedy when he committed the nation to going to theMoon be ore any American had even ventured as ar as

Earths orbit.This undamental decision led to the incredible Hubble sto-ry told in these articles. The high expectations or what thetelescope could accomplish was ollowed by the incrediblelow points experienced by astronomers, NASA and the pub-lic ollowing the discovery that a slightly misshapen mirror** prevented Hubble rom properly ocusing on celestialbodies. It is hard today, a ter 18+ years o amazing success

or Hubble, to imagine the anguish and despair elt amongthe Hubble community in the years between the launch o Hubble in 1990 and the success ul results o its First Servic-ing Mission in 1993.

The exhaustive preparation or that initial rescue and ser-vicing mission and the three subsequent Hubble servicingmissions have taught many lessons in problem-solving, bothon the ground and in space. Spin-o technologies remindus that when smart people solve technological problems,results o ten go ar beyond any original expectations, eveninto unrelated areas.

The tragic loss o the Space Shuttle Columbia in early 2003delayed additional work that had been planned or Hubble.Subsequent engineering solutions and increases in sa etymeasures have now made a th servicing mission possi-ble. Hubble has been in operation ar longer than originallyimagined and the completion o each o the servicing mis-sions essentially le t a new, improved telescope. The thservicing mission gives Hubble a new lease on li e.

Using incredible scienti c and engineering ingenuity, thou-sands o people planned, designed, built, tested, trained or,upgraded, repaired and operated this extraordinary instru-ment. Their innovations and improvements have resulted inmore amazing scienti c discoveries than anyone ever hadimagined, as well as an extended operational li e or Hubble.This willingness to persevere in the ace o extreme chal-lenge is a tribute to the human spirit that inspires and en-ergizes us all and serves as an excellent model or tacklingtodays challenges - on Earth and beyond.

* Scientist Lyman Spitzer (1914-1997) spent the 1960s proposing alarge space telescope to NASA and Congress. Initial concept studiesbegan in the late 1960s, and the Hubble Space Telescope nally be-came a reality as a unded program in 1978.

** The mirror was too fat on the outer edges by 1/50 the diameter o a human hair.



NASAs Hubble Space Telescope Photo courtesy o NASA


4/23

The Hubble Legacy




By Paul Hoversten, USA TODAYApril 25, 1990Page 1A

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The splendor o the universe isabout to come into ocus as the space shuttle astronautsprepare to send the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescopeinto orbit today.

Not since the Italian astronomer Galileo turned his spy-glass to the heavens 400 years ago and saw craters on themoon and stripes on Jupiter has there been such a quan-tum leap in astronomy.

Until now, scientists wanting a clear look at stars and gal-axies were thwarted by Earths turbulent atmosphere,which blurs and distorts the view. But Hubble - orbitinghigh above the clouds - can peer undisturbed.

Were about to be given a pair o glasses that brings theuniverse into 20/20 clarity, says NASA science chie Len-nard Fisk. Itll be like the little near-sighted child in theclassroom who gets a pair o glasses and at last can seewhat the teacher has been writing on the blackboard.

At stake are answers to some o the most perplexing mys-teries o the ages: How big is the universe? How old is it?How do galaxies evolve? Are there other planets?

Humans have pondered these questions since they rstle t their cave and looked up into a clear night sky, saysNASA project scientist Ed Weiler. The telescope will pro-vide ... a wonderous sailing ship to explore these puzzles.

NASA is expected to release Hubbles rst pictures - o the3 billion- year-old star cluster NGC 3532 - to the mediawithin a week. The star cluster is 1,500 light years romEarth. Light travels 5.88 trillion miles in one year.

The telescope does have limitations. Because it orbits 360miles above Earth, its view is blocked by the planet. Obser-vation is limited to 30 minutes in each 90-minute orbit.

But strange sights are out there:

- Faraway quasars - star-like objects smaller than our solarsystem but 1,000 times as bright.

- Black holes, or collapsed stars, with gravity elds sodense not even light can escape.

- White dwar stars that ormed billions o years a termost galaxies.

Hubble also may see Jupiter-size planets around othersuns.

I dont think were going to go to magic or superscience,says Riccardo Giacconi, head o the Space Telescope Sci-ence Institute at Baltimores Johns Hopkins Institute, whereHubble data will be analyzed and stored.

But the universe may be put together in ways that we canteven athom. There will be heroic attempts to understandit ... because (doing so) is the key to what may happen.

In particular, Giacconi and others want to know i the uni-verse is still expanding - as U.S. astronomer Edwin Hubble,

or whom the telescope is named, ound in the 1920s. Thatdiscovery led to the Big Bang theory, that the universe

ormed in a cosmic explosion 15 billion years ago.

But how the universe will end is one o the things nobodyknows, says Hubble scientist Richard Harms o AppliedResearch Corp. I we can show the curvature o space, itwill help us understand the ultimate ate o the universe,whether it keeps expanding orever or collapses.

Built by Lockheed and Perkin-Elmer Corp. (now part o Hughes Danbury), Hubble is an engineering marvel - hal abillion times more sensitive than the human eye, 10 timesmore power ul than any telescope. It eatures:

- An 8- oot primary mirror, the most nely polished in theworld. Its so smooth that, i scaled to the size o the Earth,imper ections would be just ve inches high.

Hubble: Astronomys time machineNew era or mankind will open today

Page 2


5/23

The Hubble Legacy




By comparison, ordinary eyeglasses scaled in the same

way would have peaks as tall as the Empire State Building.- A truss that holds two mirrors 16 eet apart without shi t-ing more than 1/10,000th o an inch in heat or cold. Thats1/30th the thickness o a piece o typing paper.

- Five science instruments, each the size o a re rigeratorthat run on just 110-150 watts o power. Thats as much asa typical three-way light bulb.

- Detectors sensitive enough to see a fashlight on themoon rom Earth (a distance o 250,000 miles) or a refyin Sydney, Australia, rom Washington, D.C. (10,000 miles).

- Resolution with 10 times the clarity o past telescopes. Alicense plate can be read at 30 miles, a nickel at six.

- A pointing mechanism steady enough that a laser redrom the Capitol could hit a dime on Manhattans World

Trade Center and stay xed on it or 24 hours.

The 12 1/2-ton telescope - 20 years in the making - is atime machine: Astronomers will be able to see starlightemitted 14 billion years ago - almost to the Big Bang - andseven times arther than ground telescopes can see.

To look back in time, we look deeper into space, saysastronomer James Westphal o the Cali ornia Institute o Technology. Its a little hard or me to say what well see.Many surprises, and they may be very common.

Hubble is the rst o our Great Observatories that NASAplans to launch in the 1990s, moving the pursuit o astron-omy o the ground and into space. The telescope, whichmeasures mainly visible light, and two other observato-ries, which will record cosmic X-rays and gamma rays, willbe launched and serviced by space shuttles.

Were witnessing what will literally be the dawn o a new

era in astronomy, says Fisk. Never be ore has humankindhad the opportunity to increase its knowledge o the uni-verse more rapidly than we will in the 1990s.

In the process, NASA and space supporters are hoping thewonders to be studied will inspire a new generation o sci-entists and astronomers. Hundreds o astronomers aroundthe world - as well as promising college students in theUSA - will have access to the data.

This is a stunning opportunity that will have a tremen-dous impact on science education rom grade school tograd school, says Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., whose

committee oversees NASAs budget.

Operating costs or Hubble are expected to run $200 mil-lion a year during its 15-year li etime, pushing the totalprogram cost to about $5 billion.

When this thing fies, theres a lot riding on it, says Gi-acconi, echoing the concerns o many scientists who want-ed Hubble to fy years earlier, on an un-manned rocket andat a much higher altitude than the shuttle can go.

That would have stretched the telescopes viewing timeper orbit, but made it impossible or astronauts to repair inthe event o a breakdown.

I hate to think about it, Giacconi says. Were talkingabout li etimes here o many people. One would like to nothave to do this (via shuttle) too many times.

Shuttle commander Loren Shriver, noting Hubble isplanned to operate into the next century, says, It shouldbe, and is, a source o national pride or the country.

I might be able to tell my grandkids some day, `Yeah, itsstill up there and is still sending back some data and yourold grandad actually had something to do with that.

Page 3


6/23

Source: NASA, USA TODAY reporter Paul Hoversten, graphic by Bob Laird, USA TODAY

Page 4


7/23

The Hubble Legacy

Part Two: The Problem



Paul Hoversten June 28, 19901A

The Hubble Space Telescope, which overcame earlywobbles and memory loss, will be near-sighted or threeyears.

A awed mirror on the troubled Hubble is blurring views -and orcing NASA to put o many o Hubbles tasks.

The setback is the most serious yet or the $1.5 billion tele-scope, launched April 25.

Hubbles wide-feld planetary camera - responsible orphotographing the cosmos, 40% o the telescopes 15-yearmission - is rendered useless or science.

As a result, Hubble can see the universe only in invisiblein rared and ultraviolet light - something no ground tele-scope can do.

Were all very rustrated, says NASAs Ed Weiler.

NASA must wait until 1993, when another shuttle is sched-uled to visit Hubble, to replace the camera - and compen-sate or the mirrors. The cameras cost is actored into Hub-bles $200 million annual budget.

NASA is orming a panel to fnd out what went wrong.

The mirrors, built by Perkin-Elmer Corp. (now HughesDanbury Optical Systems), were tested on Earth - but nev-er together, says Hubble deputy manager Jean Olivier.

A test site would have been extremely costly and verycomplicated, he says. Hundreds o millions o dollars.

The frms engineers did all the testing that NASA re-quired, says company spokesman Thomas Arconti.

NASA science chie Lennard Fisk says Hubble is still valu-able: Youre going to see astronomers oohing and aahingover the images. I think youre going to be very pleasedwith the investment the country made in the telescopeeven as it is today.

Poor eyesight is Hubbles latest trouble

Graphic by Marty Baumann, USA TODAY


8/23Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division o Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

In collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight CenterPage 2

The Hubble Legacy

Part Two: The Problem

Source: Lockheed Missles and Space Co., NASAGraphic by Bob Laird and Julie Stacey, USA TODAY


9/23

The Hubble Legacy




By Paul Hoversten, USA TODAYNovember 30, 1993Page 1A

Seven astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour - tanksull, tools at the ready - are poised or a white-knuckle

repair job during NASAs toughest shuttlemission.

Their task: catch and x the ailing Hubble

Space Telescope - and restore some gloryto an agency thats been pilloried as thegang that couldnt y straight.

A ter a disastrous summer o errant rock-et launches and a lost Mars probe, NASAbackers and bashers alike are clear on this:The agency needs a home run with Hub-ble, not only to shore up morale but to re-assure the public and Congress that it canstill deliver.

Whether we like it or not, this program isgoing to be in the history books . . . eitheras a national disgrace or a great Americancomeback, says Ed Weiler, a Hubble sci-entist.

Carried into space three years ago as thepride o U.S. astronomy, Hubble was sup-posed to give scientists razor-sharp viewso distant stars and galaxies at the edge o the universe. Instead, the telescope is sad-dled with a misshapen mirror, wobblysolar panels and dead gyroscopes thatthreatenthe promise o the only orbiting observa-tory.

Its going to be an extremely stress ul mission that willrequire no hangups, says David Webb, head o space edu-cation at Embry-Riddle University. It has to be a spot-onper ect mission to be pulled o .

No one is more aware o the pressure than Endeavours sixmen and one woman - all veterans who have more ightexperience and longer training than any other crew.

This is not your local garage. Its space ight, one o themost ambitious missions weve ever own, says payload

commander Story Musgrave, a our-timeshuttle astronaut. It is a drama thats go-ing to have to be played out.

That drama un olds with the scheduledlaunch rom Floridas Kennedy Space Cen-ter at 4: 57 a.m. ET Wednesday. The 11-day mission is the rst to visit a satellitedesigned or servicing.

Endeavours rendezvous with Hubble 364miles above Earth is set or Friday, whenthe shuttles robotic arm will capture the

our-story telescope and haul it into thecargo bay.

Then, two pairs o astronauts will make atleast ve, 6-hour spacewalks - a U.S. record- to replace equipment and install correc-tive optics on the $ 2.1 billion telescope.

Finally, Hubble will be released into spacewhere it will orbit until the second servicemission in 1997.

Should something go wrong, the soon-est NASA could revisit Hubble is aboutsix months. Theres no bringing Hubbleback to Earth: The shuttle is not carryingthe special cradle used to deploy the tele-scope.

The mission couldnt bring higher anxi-ety or NASA, which had a string o embarrassments this year - including aweather satellite lost to a dead batteryand the Mars Observer probe that ellsilent.

Reviving Hubble and NASALosing Hubble will not ul ll the dream




The Hubble Legacy


Those setbacks dampened the euphoria rom the lastshuttle rendezvous - the dramatic rescue in May 1992 o an Intelsat satellite that required a scripted, on-the- ygrab by three spacewalkers.

Two crewmembers o that ight - Tom Akers, who helpedmake the grab, and Kathy Thornton, who was on a di er-ent spacewalk - are aboard Endeavour or this rescue.

A Hubble success now also is a critical con dence-builderor another, even riskier program: NASAs planned space

station, to be launched and assembled in orbit this decade.The station, as with Hubble, will be designed or routineservice and repair jobs by spacewalkers.

When the space station is built, this sort o thing will haveto be done all the time, says Webb. So this will plainlydemonstrate i we have the capability or not.

Hubbles problems began shortly a ter it was dropped o in space by a shuttle in April 1990.

Scientists ound to their horror that the telescopes 8- ootmirror had been ground too at around the edges, caus-ing starlight to spread out on the mirrors sur ace in a

uzzy halo instead o being ocused to a point. The result isblurred images.

Only through computer enhancement has NASA been ableto provide the tantalizing photos o distant stars and gal-axy clusters ground-based telescopes cant see becauseo Earths atmosphere. Hubble has difculties seeing verydim stars or ocusing on those in crowded elds.

You wont nd a group o people who are more angrythan the astronomers, says William Keel, an astronomerat the University o Alabama. Weve been able to see justenough to know what were missing.

The curvature was o by 1/50th the width o a human hair- a gaping margin in optical terms. Contractors Perkin-

Elmer Corp. and Hughes Danbury Optical Systems agreedthis October to pay the ederal government $ 25 millionor the de ect.

The servicing mission is costing taxpayers $ 251 million,including $ 86 million to x the mirror. In addition, justlaunching the shuttle costs $ 500 million to $ 650 million.

There were more troubles: The delicate solar panels shud-dered as Hubble moved into and out o sunlight, making it

difcult to steady the telescope. Over time, uses and

magnetic sensors wore out, computer so tware ailed and- worst o all - three o six gyroscopes ailed.

With gyroscopes needed to point and align Hubble, havingthree working ones is essential or the health o the tele-scope, says Musgrave. I we lose one more, were downto a no-science mode.

The solution or Hubbles shaky health and myopic vision isa risky one. A ter replacing the gyroscopes and solar pan-els, spacewalkers Musgrave, Akers, Thornton and Je Ho -

man will try to install two bulky, corrective optical units:

A 610-pound, wedge-shaped camera with built-in mirrorsreplaces the wide- eld camera in Hubble that now ren-ders blurry images.

A 600-pound phone booth-size device with mirrors willbounce starlight rom the awed primary mirror ontothree other instruments. Each has to t just right or theoptics to work.





The Hubble Legacy


Nobodys ever done this, says John Pike o the Federationo American Scientists. I dont think theyve overlookedsomething obvious, but Im certain theyve overlookedsomething. Every mission has unanticipated problems.

Adds Weiler: You lie awake and think o what else can gowrong. You think about it when youre driving home, andyou go talk to the engineers again. Ive done that about 12 or15 times the past year.

NASA will consider the mission a minimal success i the newgyroscopes, solar panels and one o the two optical devicescan be installed. Scientists estimate it will take between 12and 15 weeks to ocus and recalibrate Hubble be ore theyllknow i the problem is corrected.

Im not sure we can achieve nearly per ect, says programmanager Ken Ledbetter. When youre pushing the edges o the rontier you sometimes run into the unexpected. Wewill accept whatever comes out o this mission and go on.

The astronauts say their hope is to not worsen Hubble, andtheyve spent 400 hours in an underwater tank to practicethe xes.

We have to exercise exquisite care because were going tobe working in an environment with a lot o very delicate

hardware. We certainly dont want to mess up anything thatisnt broken, says astronaut Ho man, an astronomer.

Despite its aws, Hubble has revealed marvelous views o the cosmos - storms on Saturn, colliding galaxies, canni-balistic star clusters that eed on each other and potentialblack holes where gravity is so dense that light cant es-cape.

High above Earths obscuring atmosphere, Hubble is the onlyobservatory that can study ultraviolet light, which is una -

ected by the mirror aw and accounts or hal o the tele-scopes work.

It is true that (Hubble) as it presently exists is doing rst-

class science and will continue doing it, but unless we makethese repairs it will not ul ll the dream, says Ho man.

It cant take us out to the edge o the universe, it cant takeus back to the beginning o time. These philosophical ques-tions which are so important to humanity are not going tobe solved unless we x it. This program is going to be in the history books ... eitheras a national disgrace or a great American comeback. - EdWeiler, Hubble scientist, NASA astronomer.

Hubbles repair schedule

Wednesday, 12/1:Launch at 4: 57 a.m. ET rom Floridas Kennedy SpaceCenter

Thursday and Friday, 12/2 and 3:Establish orbit with Hubble, rendezvous and grapple tele-scope into shuttles bay

Saturday, 12/4:First spacewalk, or Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) with as-

tronauts Story Musgrave and Je Ho man to replace twoo three non-operating gyroscopes that point and alignHubble.

Sunday, 12/5:Second EVA with astronauts Kathryn Thornton and TomAkers to replace wobbling solar panels

Monday, 12/6:Third EVA with astronauts Musgrave and Ho man toinstall upgraded camera that photographs stars and galax-ies.

Tuesday, 12/7:Fourth EVA with astronauts Thornton and Akers to installCorrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement(COSTAR) and ight systems computer

Wednesday, 12/ 8:Fi th EVA with astronauts Musgrave and Ho man to re-place electronic control units and install new uses

Thursday, 12/9 : Redeploy Hubble

Friday, 12/10: Crew rest day

Saturday, 12/11: Press con erence rom orbit

Sunday, 12/12: Landing at Kennedy Space Center



Page 4




13/23

The Hubble Legacy




Todd Halvorson, Florida Todayor USA TODAY

December 26, 1995

The Hubble Space Telescope once was the butt o late-nighttelevision jokes. Nobodys laughing now.

The once myopic orbiting obser-vatory, out tted two years ago thismonth with a $ 629 million pair o contact lenses, is more than livingup to its prelaunch hype.

The reasons include the discoveryo another planet orbiting a star,proo that black holes exist andstunning pictures o comet chunkssmashing into Jupiter.

Theres no question that its be-come the agship o Americanastronomy, said Terry Oswalt,a pro essor o physics and spacescience at the Florida Institute o Technology.

Oh its so sweet, said DavidLeckrone, senior Hubble projectscientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Green-belt, Md.

I mean, to eel like weve success ully come back rom ad-versity, it transcends science. Its a personal thing.

Adversity or the $ 2 billion Hubble project began in June1990, two months a ter the launch o the space telescopedesigned to enable astronomers to peer to the edge o theuniverse. It was supposed to answer ancient questions aboutthe age o the universe, and whether it would expand or-ever or collapse upon itsel in a Great Crunch.

Then came spherical aberration - NASA jargon or blurryvision.

Devastated astronomers discovered that the telescopes8- oot primary mirror had been ground ten-thousandths o an inch too at, or about one- tieth o the diameter o ahuman hair. As a result, Hubble was as nearsighted as Mr.Magoo.

Images o stars and galaxies came back blurry, and the prom-ise o Hubble seemed to collapse. But two years later cameThe Big Fix.

In December 1993, astronauts out tted Hubble with cor-rective lenses, a more power ul planetary camera, new

power-producing solar arrays andequipment that would enable thetelescope to point with greater accu-racy. The scienti c returns ranklyhave been antastic, Oswalt said.

The stream o discoveries since Hub-bles repair includes:

Black holes: These objects arthought to have such a power ulgravitational pull that nothing, noteven light, can escape their grasp.

Scientists theorized that black holesare the engines that keep galaxiesand their billions o stars together.

Soon a ter Hubbles repair, astrono-

mers ocused it on M87, a galaxy 52million light-years rom Earth. Theyound clear evidence o a black hole: a whirlpool o dust, gas

and stars being drawn into a pitch-black vortex, a galacticcore that had a mass equal to 3 billion suns.

Cosmic hula hoops: One o the most intensely studied ce-lestial objects in recent history has been Supernova 1987A,a star over the Southern Hemisphere that exploded 170,000light-years rom Earth.

It wasnt until Hubble zoomed in on it that astronomersdiscovered giant, color ul rings orbiting the remains o theobliterated star. The glowing red loops rotated and wobbledaround the supernova core like mystical hula hoops.

Smash hits on Jupiter: A trail o 21comet chunks collided with Jupiter in July 1994, leaving scientists in awe.

The once-troubled Hubble ying high

Orion Nebula Courtesty o NASA/Hubble Space Telescope




The Hubble Legacy


The comet ragments hit Jupiters atmosphere at up to130,000 mph, sending up mushroom clouds and reballs930 miles high.

Destructive enough to vaporize a major metropolitanarea, the collisions weresaid to be similar to one thathammered Earth 65 millionyears ago. It theoreticallysent up a massive cloud o ash that choked o sunlightand killed 70% o the speciesliving at the time, includingall dinosaurs.

The birth o other planets:Hubble astronomers tookpictures showing that atleast hal the newborn starsin the Orion Nebula are sur-rounded by at, dusty rounddisks that could turn intoplanets.

What we learned rom thatis that the basic conditions inwhich planets might orm mightbe extremely common around newborn stars, said Steve

Maran, a Hubble project scientist at Goddard Space FlightCenter. And that eventually could help us make a judg-ment on whether we are alone.

A star is born: Astronomers this all witnessed the birtho stars within monstrous columns o gas and dust in theEagle Nebula, a region 7,000 light-years away rom Earth inthe constellation Serpens.

The gaseous towers, each 6 trillion miles long, resemblestalagmites rising rom a cavern oor.

At their tips are nger-like protrusions, each o which holdsa newborn star in what astronomers named EGGs - Evapo-

rating Gaseous Globules.

While the Hubble is answering an-cient questions and con rminglong-held theories, it also is creatingconundrums.

Astronomers long have said the uni-verse was created in a primordialexplosion called The Big Bang 15

to 20 billion years ago. Hubble datahave shown that stars in the MilkyWay galaxy appear to be at least 12billion to 14 billion years old. Recentobservations, however, indicate theuniverse itsel might only be 8 bil-lion to 9 billion years old.

How can you have stars that areolder than the universe? Oswaltsaid.

The puzzle is but one o the holy grails astronomers will

be seeking during the next decade o star-hunting withHubble, which is expected to operate in orbit until at least2005.

The act is that weve just barely scratched the sur ace,Maran said. We have barely begun to look around.

Orion Nebula Courtesty o NASA/Hubble Space Telescope




The Hubble Legacy


Larry Wheeler, Gannett News ServiceOctober 24, 1997

WASHINGTON The same technology that allows theHubble space telescope to unlock secrets hidden in gal-axies millions o light years away is already making breastcancer detection more accurate and less pain ul on Earth.

Similarly, a robotic brain surgery device developed or use

by an astronaut physician on a uture trip to Mars mayeventually allow doctors to per orm even more precisebreast surgery procedures at less cost and with even bet-ter outcomes.

Such is the promise o merging the technological prowesso the nations civilian space agency with the medical ex-pertise at the Department o Health and Human Services,according to government ofcials.

I we can see the sur ace o Mars with the Hubble spacetelescope, then lets get a dividend rom our national in-vestment in space by trans erring technologies to improve

the early detection o breast cancer and to ght other dis-eases in women, said Dr. Susan Blumenthal, deputy as-sistant secretary or womens health issues and assistantsurgeon general or Health and Human Services.

Blumenthal and Henry McDonald, director o NASAs AmesResearch Center, signed a cooperative agreement Thurs-day to bring the two agencies closer together in the ghtagainst breast cancer and other womens diseases.

NASA Administrator Dan Goldin suggested the agreementshould silence critics who question why U.S. astronautscontinue to serve aboard the crippled Russian space sta-tion Mir and challenge spending billions on a new Interna-tional Space Station.

NASA ingenuity develops machines and methods to treatsick astronauts on the way to the Moon and Mars, Goldinsaid. We should also use that talent to make a concertede ort to save our wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and

riends whose lives are a ected by cancers and other dis-eases.

In January, NASA plans to send its so-called bioreactor toMir where it will per orm as a high-tech incubator or hu-man breast cancer tissue. Researchers anticipate learningmuch rom the experiment designed to use the micrograv-ity environment o space to oster tumor growth that cantbe achieved in a at, laboratory petri dish back on Earth.

The agreement provided no new unding or breast can-

cer research but instead created a cooperative rameworkbetween NASAs Ames Research Center in Cali ornia andthe Department o Health and Human Services Ofce onWomens Health.

On display at the event in the Cannon House ofce buildingand at a luncheon in the Capitol building were examples o NASA-developed medical products under development oralready at work in hospitals.

Some examples:

Digital imaging technology developed or Hubble is al-

ready working at more than 350 medical acilities insidethe LORAD Stereo Guide Breast Biopsy System which o -ers women a quick and less pain ul method or determin-

ing i a breast lump is malignant. The procedure costs $850vs. a traditional breast biopsy surgery charge o approxi-mately $3,500.

-- An instrument designed to study the Earths atmosphererom space is being converted to provide superior new im-

ages o the entire breast while accommodating di erenttissue density. An instrument unhampered by tissue densi-ty is important because younger women have more densebreast tissue than older women.

Technology that allows the Mars Path nder to delivercrisp pictures is being modi ed to make three-dimension-al models o breast tissue, giving physicians the ability todi erentiate between cancerous and healthy tissue with-out pain ul, invasive procedures.

Several members o the Congressional Caucus on WomensIssues praised the agreement.

Technology used in Hubble telescope helpsdetect breast cancer more accurately



Page 4

The Hubble Legacy


NASA already has an impressive record o trans erring itstechnological discoveries to the private sector, said Rep.Anna Eschoo, D-Cali ., whose congressional district hoststhe Ames Research Center. The new interagency agree-ment will help re ne the space agencys technologies andapply them to the speci c health care needs o women,such as cancer, reproductive health, osteoporosis and edu-cation.

Breast cancer is the leading cause o death o women ages35 to 50 in the United States. Each year, more than 180,000new cases o breast cancer are diagnosed and more than500,000 breast biopsies are per ormed.

Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., and his wi e, Priscilla, spoke at theluncheon about their personal experiences with cancer andthe value o early detection and continued research.

Priscilla Mack described how she ound a lump in her breastby accident and urged women not to leave their health tochance. Practice sel -exams, see your physician at leastonce a year and ollow recommended breast exam guide-lines, she said.

Mack later had reconstructive surgery. She is now a tirelessadvocate or early detection.

Sen. Mack said his brother Michaels 12-year struggle withmelanoma was the motivating actor that led him to seekpublic ofce. A ter his brothers death and shortly a ter win-ning his senate seat, Mack himsel ound out he had mel-anoma but survived because his cancer had been caughtearly enough.

Mack said continued ederally sponsored cancer research isessential to beating the disease in all its orms. The FloridaRepublican has introduced a resolution to double spendingon cancer research at the National Institutes o Health.

Weve got to double the NIH budget, Mack said. I dontwant another husband, another brother to have to hear thewords I heard and go through what we went through.



17/23

The Hubble Legacy




Traci Watson, USA TODAYOctober 31, 20065A

For 2 1/2 years, top NASA o cials have retted over whethero send astronauts to revive the critically ill Hubble Space Tele-

scope.

The answer comes today, when NASA Administrator MichaelGri n announces whether the space shuttle will pay a servicecall to Hubble. I Gri n says yes, a ight to install two new sci-entifc instruments, fx a third and upgrade telescope systemscould launch as early as next winter.

Despite the uncertainty, NASA engineers and astronauts havebeen quietly toiling on a plan to rescue the telescope.

Space agency personnel have created new Hubble repair tools.They have outlined a rough mission schedule. And they havedeveloped new repair techniques in hopes o fxing one o Americas most cherished scientifc instruments.

The 2002 shuttle ight to Hubble, the most recent o our,was tough enough, says astronaut John Gruns eld, who madespacewalks to fx the telescope in 1999 and 2002. I that washeart surgery, this time were planning to do brain surgery --hat next level o delicacy, he says.

Some o the tasks on the ight, such as opening a door astenedwith more than 100 tiny screws, would seem to be impos-sible, says astronaut Michael Massimino, who also did a space-walk in 2002 to repair the telescope. This one, I think, is aboutas challenging as you can get, Massimino says.

A bit o Velcro alling into the telescopes guts could spoil its

vision. One misplaced nudge o a spacewalking astronauts ootcould derail a telescope that, while wounded, is still snappingpictures o the cosmos.

You want to be very, very care ul, says Massimino, yet youwant to get as much done as you possibly can, because youreup there or a fnite time. He notes that the astronauts whoive on the space station can polish o chores that werent fn-shed during spacewalks. Hubble has no such backup.

Punishing work schedule

NASA has added new sa ety precautions to every shuttle ightsince shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003. Now every shut-tle crew must spend an entire day in orbit inspecting the shipsthermal shield, a procedure that demands precious time and

uel.

The biggest challenge ... (is) how do we pack everything we

need to do to assure a sa e vehicle into a typical Hubble mis-sion? says astronaut Joseph Tanner, whose our shuttle ightsincluded one to Hubble in 1997. Its not business like it usedto be.

It was sa ety that led then-NASA administrator Sean OKee ein 2004 to cancel the f th shuttle mission to Hubble. Since theColumbia accident, NASA has made sure that in an emergency,every shuttle crew could hole up on the International SpaceStation and wait or rescue by another shuttle. But a shuttlevisiting Hubble couldnt reach the station, which ollows a patharound the Earth more than 100 miles away rom the Hubblesorbit.

OKee es decision meant curtains or Hubble, since no otherspace vehicle in the world can stay in space long enough toupgrade the telescope.

When Gri n took over the space agency in early 2005, hechanged course. NASA, he said, would send a shuttle to saveHubble i the frst ights a ter the Columbia accident went well.The three ights since the accident -- one in 2005, another in July, and one in September -- all returned sa ely to Earth.

The long to-do list or the next Hubble mission means that thecrew would probably make fve spacewalks in fve days. Mis-

sions to the station usually include only three spacewalks, witha day o rest between them.

The punishing work schedule on a Hub-ble mission, combined with the extratask o inspecting the shuttle, adds upto a crew workload (that) is going tobe outrageous, Gruns eld says. Theresgoing to be no sleeping on this mission.That can lead to risky atigue.

Daring Hubble repair plan awaits goNASA to say today whether mission to fx telescope is on




The Hubble Legacy


Reviving dead spectrograph

By ar the most di cult task on a f th Hubble ight wouldbe fxing the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, whichanalyzes the light rom distant objects in the cosmos. Thespectrograph, dead since 2004 because o a aulty elec-tronics board, gives in ormation on temperature and den-sity. It was not designed to be fxed in orbit, posing thesechallenges:

*The door to the compartment containing the aulty partis held down by 111 tiny screws, which an astronaut ina spacesuit would fnd nearly impossible to remove. Once

reed, the screws could easily oat away and vanish intothe workings o the telescope.

Engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center devised aspecial miniature screwdriver and a device that will im-prove the astronauts aim as they work on the screws andclamp onto them once theyre loose.

*The edges o the electronics board are sharp -- a peril tothe astronauts, whose spacesuits are in ated with air. Thatmeans the spacewalkers cant touch the board or ear o puncturing their suits.

The board is held in place by locks akin to Chinese fn-ger handcu s, says Hubble program manager Preston

Burch. As you pull on them, they get tighter and tighter.

On Earth, it may take an hour to coax one out. A card-puller has been devised or the astronauts to use to yankthe board ree.

*The spectrograph lies so deep inside Hubble that the as-tronauts cant work as usual. On a normal Hubble task, twoastronauts stand on the shuttles robotic arm, one doingthe work, and the second handing tools to the frst.

The Hubble team now thinks the repair astronaut canstand on a portable sca old attached to the telescope. Theshuttles robot arm might hover nearby and act as a toolcaddy.

Because o the time pressure the astronauts ace, the plan-ning team has also worked on how to make the routineHubble chores easier.

Engineers have cooked up an alignment device that willhelp the spacewalkers load Hubble with new scientifc in-struments, which have to be slid into their slots just so.Theyre building exact replicas o parts o the telescope sothe astronauts can practice their moves. Theyre rethink-ing how to load items on the shuttle, to cut the time spenthunting or supplies.

We dont leave anything to chance, Burch says. We workreal hard to make sure that we cant get ooled.




The Hubble Legacy


Source: NASA, Graphic: Bob Laird, USA TODAY


20/23

The Hubble Legacy




1. Several o these articles describe how NASA Hubble Space Telescope scientists and engineers recovered rom unex-pected events and solved problems. Can you identi y a set o problem-solving steps and processes that are evidentin more than one situation? What are the di erences in the problem-solving steps/processes when the problem isbeing solved on the ground (prior to a mission) and when the problem is being solved real-time on-orbit (using theastronaut crew and ground support) during a mission?

2. Success ul space missions, whether human or robotic, require many di erent technologies. What potential spin-o bene ts can you imagine as results rom research and development in li e support systems, robotics, telerobotics,arti cial intelligence, etc.?

3. How does the r isk o servicing the Hubble compare to other types o space ight missions in terms o cost to the publicand risk o human li e? How does it compare to other endeavors such as the Panama Canal, Brooklyn Bridge, HooverDam, the Large Hadron Collider, etc.?

4. Should the Space Program ocus on low-risk missions in order to gain the publics trust or high-risk missions to inspirethe public? What are the pros and cons o each ocus?

5. What Hubble lessons learned were applicable to the next servicing mission? How did the ongoing servicing o Hubble, and the in ormation gained rom it, impact other human and robotic space missions?

6. One o the original purposes to be gained rom the Hubble servicing missions was to test procedures that would beused or building the International Space Station (ISS). In what ways has the servicing o the Hubble Space Telescopeimpacted ISS, rom in uencing the publics opinion o ISS to processes and procedures used in building it?

7. Do you agree that the Hubble Space Telescope was becoming a national disgrace? Were there built-in eatures o Hubble that kept it rom meeting this prediction? In spite o the primary mirror problem, what scienti c advanceswere still being made by the telescope be ore it was corrected on the First Servicing Mission?

Hubble: In Depth

1. When the trouble with the Hubble Space Telescopes primary mirror was detected shortly a ter its launch in 1990,NASA and the mirror manu acturer, Perkin-Elmer Corp., now Goodrich, were criticized or not testing the primaryand secondary mirrors together on earth. NASA estimated such a test would have been cost-prohibitive at that time.This is an example o accepting technical risk (as opposed to risk to human li e) vs. cost. When an important test isprohibitively expensive, yet ailure could compromise the entire program, what steps might a company, or agencysuch as NASA, take to lessen the risk? Can such risk ever be eliminated completely?

2. What steps did NASA take to reduce risks in getting ready or the First Servicing Mission in 1993? Explain how theserisk-reduction measures apply to the International Space Station and other satellite and observatory programs.

Discussion Questions

Hubble: The Mission, The Lessons




The Hubble Legacy


Hubble: In Depth (continued)

3. The article Hubble: Astronomys time machine touches on the decision to make Hubble serviceable by space-suitedastronauts operating rom the Space Shuttle. Many astronomers would have pre erred to put Hubble in a much higherorbit, as are the other NASA Great Observatories. Discuss the costs o making Hubble serviceable. What would havebeen the positive and negative results i Hubble had been put into a higher orbit that the Shuttle could not reach?

4. Take a look at current and uture Great Observatory-type telescope missions and the di erent orbits they are in. Whatactors determine the orbit necessary or each? What are the advantages o having observatories in di erent types o

orbits?

5. What might be the implications i the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) is capable o traveling to some o theseorbits, keeping in mind that we have now per ormed many kinds o repairs on Hubble which were not originally an-ticipated with pre-planned built-in eatures?

The Hubble SpiritLess than three weeks prior to a scheduled October 2008 launch date or NASAs space shuttle Atlantis STS-125 missionto service the Hubble Space Telescope or the th servicing mission, a signi cant Hubble anomaly occurred on orbit.This caused a delay o the mission so that the problem could be properly understood, analyzed and solved. The A side(there are two operating electronic sides (A and B)) o the science instrument command and data handling (SI C&DH)unit had ailed, a ecting the storage and transmittal o data rom Hubble to Earth. Hubbles instruments automaticallywent into sa e mode.

In groups o three, research the impact o this event and develop three possible options or addressing the problem.Consider the impact o each o these plans on the objectives or the STS-125 servicing mission to Hubble and the overallobjectives o the telescope. Discuss the potential impacts, advantages and disadvantages o each plan on the HubbleSpace Telescope servicing mission and the telescopes operations. Finally, present a justi cation or your selection o thebest option among the three.




The Hubble Legacy


Internet Resourcese NASA Home Page:

www.nasa.gov

e Hubble Servicing Mission 4:www.nasa.gov/hubble

e NASA Hubble Program Main Page:www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html

e Introduction to Hubble Servicing Missions:http://hubble.nasa.gov/missions/intro.php

e NASA: A Brie History o the Hubble Space Telescope:http://history.nasa.gov/hubble/index.html

e NASA Hubble Education Resources:www.nasa.gov/education/hubble

e Space Telescope Science Institute Ofce o Public Outreach:http://oposite.stsci.edu

e Space Telescope Science Institute Hubble Essentials/General Interest:http://hubblesite.org

e The Hubble Heritage Project:http://heritage.stsci.edu

e The European Home Page or the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope:www.spacetelescope.org/about/history

e Books about Edwin Hubble:www.edwinhubble.com

e The Best o the Hubble Telescope - Links to Hubble Images:http://seds.org/hst/hst.html

e The Planetary Society - Space Topics Hubble Space Telescope:http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/hubble/

All photos in the le t ears o The Hubble Legacy are rom the Hubble Space Telescope, Courtesy o NASA


23/23

Mike Weiss - Deputy Program Manager/Technical or the Hubble Space Telescope Program. Mike has led the techni-cal development o all Hubble servicing missions. He has worked human and robotic space missions at NASA or over 30years. Mike holds a bachelors and a masters degree in Aerospace Engineering.

The Hubble Legacy


Contributing Experts:

Page 4

Dr. Jeffrey A. Hoffman - Astronaut, Pro essor o the Practice o Aerospace Engineering, Massachusetts Institute o Technology, Department o Aeronautics and Astronautics;

Je has a bachelors degree in astronomy rom Amherst College, a masters degree in materials science rom Rice Univer-sity and a doctorate in astrophysics rom Harvard University.

Je s ourth space ight was as an EVA crewmember on Hubbles rst servicing mission in 1993 (STS-61). He was oneo the our astronauts who per ormed a record ve space walks, and has logged more than 1,211 hours and 21.5 millionmiles in space.

Paul Richards - Astronaut, Hubble Manager/Engineer, Observatory Manager NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Paul has a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering rom Drexel University and a masters degree in mechanical engi-neering. rom the University o Maryland.

Paul was Senior EVA Tool Development Engineer or the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Project; Project Manager orHST EVA crew aids and tools and Program Manager or HST EVA hardware. He also served as systems engineering support

or the HST WETF/NBS Servicing Mission Simulations as a utility diver and EMU suited subject.

Dr. Kathryn Thornton - Astronaut, Pro essor and Assistant Dean or Graduate Programs, University o Virginia Schoolo Engineering and Applied Science

Kathy has a bachelors degree in physics rom Auburn University and masters and doctorate degrees in physics rom theUniversity o Virginia.

Kathy served or 12 years as a NASA Astronaut, ying on our shuttle missions. including Hubbles rst servicing missionin 1993 (STS-61), orbiting the Earth 256 times and traveling over 6 million miles in space.

Russell L. Werneth - Aerospace Engineer and Higher Education Advisor at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center inGreenbelt, Maryland

Russ has bachelors and masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering rom the University o Maryland in College Park, MDand a masters degree in Engineering Administration rom the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

During the past our Hubble servicing missions, Russ served as the ExtraVehicular Activity (EVA, or spacewalk) Manageror Crew Aids and Tools Manager. His responsibilities included EVA procedures and training, as well as unique astronaut

tool design, testing, and development.

usa today collegiate case study: the hubble legacy (complete case study)

Documents