Hubble Space Telescope: NASA’s Plans for a Servicing Mission

Their mission is packed with five back-to-back spacewalks to repair vital systems and boost Hubble? NASA has even primed a second space shuttle to serve as a rescue ship in the unlikely event that Atlantis suffers critical damage space junk and strands its crew in orbit.

Why does Hubble need this last overhaul flight? Because of the long gap, several systems have experiences some failures and need repair. NASA had already built new cameras, instruments and maintenance gear to support this flight, too. Why is this NASA? There will then no vehicle large enough to carry new instruments to Hubble or return broken components to Earth. The shuttles typically carry seven people on two-week flights. Each has a cavernous cargo bay 15 feet 4. STS mission to extend Hubble? The board directed NASA to fly only missions that kept shuttle astronauts within reach of the International Space Station, where they could take refuge if their spacecraft was damaged.

But the cancellation was met by fierce opposition from the public and science community. In , NASA considered sending a robot to perform the Hubble repairs and upgrades, but ultimately found it infeasible. By September , NASA had successfully resumed space shuttle launches and flown the first two missions since the Columbia accident.

That success, coupled with new heat shield and repair tools, led NASA to reconsider? If it was approved, why is there a rescue shuttle for the Hubble servicing mission? Because the shuttle must fly higher and in a different inclination than the space station to reach Hubble, it does not have enough fuel to reach both the space telescope and orbiting lab.

Atlantis pilot Gregory C. Johnson has said the shuttle will spend nearly half its propellant just to reach Hubble, leaving it very little margin to return home. That is a standard feature of all Hubble repair missions because of the telescope? So, the shuttle Endeavour is already poised on a second launch pad.

NASA plans to have Endeavour and a small crew of four astronauts ready to launch within seven days of any possible declared emergency. What new science will the upgrades allow for Hubble? Hubble can currently see distant galaxies and stars that were forming when the universe was just million years old. The universe is currently Astronomers are hopeful the new gear will allow Hubble to see infant galaxies among other new findings. When would the first images from Hubble be released? If all goes well with the Hubble repair mission, the first new image is expected to be released around September.

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What are the main goals for the Atlantis? The following is a basic rundown of work to be performed during five spacewalks. New Instruments and Gear: Atlantis will arrive at Hubble on the third day of the day mission and cast off on Flight Day 9, so it will be attached for about a week.

Fact Sheet

Five of those consecutive days include spacewalks. How would the rescue mission work, if needed, and how long would it last? A rescue mission to Atlantis? The rescue crew consists of the same four astronauts who last launched on Endeavour? Dextre is made of titanium , the same metal used in airplanes and satellites, and looks like a stick figure with a thin body and two foot-long arms. The arms can turn, reach and grab in seven different ways. Most of the work Dextre would do on the Hubble Space Telescope would be directed by people on the ground twisting and turning the robot using controllers, much like the ones used on video games.

The most important job Dextre would be programmed to do would be giving Hubble new batteries.

Without new batteries the telescope would stop operating around Hubble takes a lot of big batteries. It needs six new batteries to replace the ones that are kept in a special compartment hooked up to the underside of the telescope. For the power to flow from the batteries to Hubble, Dextre would connect cables from the batteries to the solar panels on Hubble. Other jobs planned for Dextre to do were to give Hubble a new camera and mount six new gyroscopes —- instruments that help keep the telescope level.

NASA scientists believed Dextre would be able to do the job in about a month. Robots, after all, can work around the clock, without needing to sleep, eat or go to the bathroom. Riding along on this vehicle would be the de-orbit module. When the time finally came for Hubble's mission to end, the de-orbit module would steer the telescope into the ocean.

But in December the idea of sending the robot to do repairs was dealt a severe blow.

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Sean O'Keefe, the NASA administrator and strong backer of the mechanized undertaking, announced that the robotic mission was being discarded. Two of the prominent reasons for this decision were that there was not enough time to program Dextre to ensure success, and there was no money to fund the preparation and the trip. NASA had decided to restart the flight of the shuttles and Griffin said this servicing mission would take place if, and only if, the next two shuttle missions went well.

Hubble Space Telescope: NASA's Plans for a Servicing Mission - Digital Library

The first of those two flights, STS in July , while not completely successful, was not considered a failure. The parts that malfunctioned were marginal enough not be meet the criteria for a true failure. Since Discovery's external fuel tank lost large pieces of insulating foam during liftoff, NASA grounded the fleet again until the problem was solved. But STS had trouble getting ready to leave the ground. The external fuel tanks again were to blame. The near infrared detector will provide a times improvement in discovery efficiency over the current NICMOS instrument.

Working together these two instruments could create the greatest era in the spectacular history of Hubble imaging. The third FGS provides additional target pointing efficiency and redundancy. The FGSs and gyroscopes together produce extraordinary stability—0. The FGSs also provide capability for astrometry— the detailed study of stellar dynamics and motions—enabling the detection of close binary stars and star-planet systems.



Subsystem Components Gyroscopes — Hubble was designed to use three of six onboard gyroscopes to meet its very precise pointing requirements, with the other three held as spares. Gyros have limited lifetimes, and three of the six all installed in late are currently working. Following a thorough analysis and testing by engineers, it was determined that Hubble could operate productively on two gyros. By operating on two gyros, with the other gyro turned off until needed , it is expected that Hubble can continue science operations through the end of Battery Modules — The six batteries currently on board the observatory are all original equipment.

After more than 18 years of continuous operation the batteries are degrading. In the current condition, the Hubble electrical power system requires careful management of system state of charge to assure adequate power margins for all operational scenarios. This will become more difficult, and will start to constrain operations.