SLIC: Unsung Hero of Servicing Mission 4

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Caption Script:

Mark Hubbard

HST Carrier Manager

When you look in the shuttle bay during the Hubble Servicing Mission, you’ll see these four large structures we call carriers. And they carry all the space hardware, including the scientific instruments, the brand new ones, into space to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

Michael Adams

HST Carrier Development Office Manager

The carriers provide the structural support and the electrical support to insure that the instruments and electronics that we are launching on the shuttle arrive there safely and securely.

SOUND OF SHUTTLE LAUNCH

NASA MISSION COMMENTARY: Booster ignition and lift off!

Ruth Cholvibul

HST Systems Engineer

The loads that are exerted during lift off, the static acceleration, the random from the acoustic noise, all of that stuff is bad for electronics. And one of the things we have to do is to provide load isolation so nothing breaks before it gets up to Hubble.

We provide heaters to make sure nothing gets too cold, we don’t want it to get too hot either, we want to be just right when it’s ready to go into Hubble.

Mark Hubbard

HST Carrier Manager

Everything is assembled at Goddard, tested here at Goddard and then shipped down in large shipping containers, and various containers to Kennedy for integration into the payload bay.

Ruth Cholvibul

HST Systems Engineer

For Servicing Mission 4 we’ll be flying with four carriers. The one closest to the tail is the MULE, it’s carrying contingency hardware.

The next one going forward is the Flight Support System which is the primary berthing platform for the Hubble.

Mark Hubbard

HST Carrier Manger

And, it’s also carrying a new soft capture mechanism. It’s basically a ring that will attach to the bottom of the telescope for future rendezvous and capture of the space telescope.

Ruth Cholvibul

HST Systems Engineer

In front of that we have the Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier which has two instruments in it.

Michael Adams

HST Carrier Development Office Manager

The ORUC is really the workhorse carrier it is carrying both the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, the Fine Guidance Sensor, it is also carrying the ACS repair hardware, the STIS repair hardware.

Ruth Cholvibul

HST Systems Engineer

The new one is up front and it’s called the SLIC, Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier.

Michael Weiss

HST Deputy Program Manager

The only way we could carry up everything we wanted to take up on the very last servicing mission to Hubble was to design a new carrier system that was lightweight. SLIC is the unsung hero of the SM4 carrier systems. It is what is enabling us to take the new Wide Field 3 Camera to orbit. If we didn’t have SLIC the Wide Field Camera 3 would not be flying to Hubble.

Ruth Cholvibul

HST Systems Engineer

SLIC is actually a new technology for our space support equipment.

Mark Hubbard

HST Carrier Manger

The SLIC Carrier is a composite carrier; it’s made essentially of carbon fibers instead of metal.

Ruth Cholvibul

HST Systems Engineer

And the nice thing about the graphite composite is you get a lot of strength for less weight. So you have greater payload carrying capability.

Michael Weiss

HST Deputy Program Manager

Because SLIC is the first carbon fiber airframe to fly on the shuttle we had to do some really special things.

Michael Adams

HST Carrier Development Office Manager

The SLIC structure had to go through a significant testing program to prove out that it will survive the launch and landing stresses that it’s going to see. The test involved putting the into several different configurations and then pushing and pulling on it with these actuators which are just rods that push and pull on it to simulate the stresses or the loads it’s going to see when it’s launching and when it’s landing.

Michael Weiss

HST Deputy Program Manager

All that made us a whole lot smarter and a whole lot more experienced in the world of composites and we’re now working with the people in the exploration program to help transfer that knowledge to them so they can benefit from it.