USA TODAY Collegiate Case Study: The Hubble Legacy - Part 1

8/9/2019 USA TODAY Collegiate Case Study: The Hubble Legacy - Part 1

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The Hubble Legacy

Part 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 scientic 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 beore 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, ater 18+ years o amazing successor Hubble, to imagine the anguish and despair elt amongthe Hubble community in the years between the launch oHubble in 1990 and the successul 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 oten 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 saetymeasures 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 let a new, improved telescope. The thservicing mission gives Hubble a new lease on lie.

Using incredible scientic and engineering ingenuity, thosands o people planned, designed, built, tested, trained upgraded, repaired and operated this extraordinary instrment. Their innovations and improvements have resulted more amazing scientic discoveries than anyone ever haimagined, as well as an extended operational lie or HubbThis willingness to persevere in the ace o extreme chalenge is a tribute to the human spirit that inspires and eergizes us all and serves as an excellent model or tacklintodays challenges - on Earth and beyond.

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

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

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

In collaboration with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASAs Hubble Space Telescope Photo courtesy o NASA


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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 rstlet 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 atermost 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 understand

it ... 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 Hubbleor whom the telescope is named, ound in the 1920s. Thatdiscovery led to the Big Bang theory, that the universeormed 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 universewhether it keeps expanding orever or collapses.

Built by Lockheed and Perkin-Elmer Corp. (now part oHughes Danbury), Hubble is an engineering marvel - hal abillion times more sensitive than the human eye, 10 timesmore powerul 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 Earthimperections would be just ve inches high.

Hubble: Astronomys time machineNew era or mankind will open today

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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 shit-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 rerigeratorthat 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 WorldTrade 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 Caliornia Institute oTechnology. 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 beore 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 lietime, pushing the totaprogram 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 in

the event o a breakdown.

I hate to think about it, Giacconi says. Were talkingabout lietimes 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.

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

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USA TODAY Collegiate Case Study: The Hubble Legacy - Part 1