Making Hubble More Powerful
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Transcript:
Caption Script:
Jackie Townsend
WFC3 Instrument Manager
The science instruments can’t function all by themselves they get plugged into the Hubble Space Telescope and there is an entire infrastructure in there that enables them to do the gret science that they do; and has to work properly for any of these instruments to get their science down to the ground. We have the opportunity on these servicing missions, not just to upgrade the science instruments but, also to upgrade that infrastructure.
Marion Riley
HST Equipment Engineer,
Pointing and Control System
Hubble has six gyros in total and over time they wear out. We’re down to three working gyros but we’re only using two, we’re keeping one in spare. And, in the next servicing mission we’re going to replace all the gyros, so we have full gyro capability for years to come.
Well, we have six gyros and what we do is we package two of them into a box with a handle. It’s not an easy task to replace these rate sensor units, these three boxes. The start trackers have these long tubes on them called sun shades, so when the astronauts have to replace the gyros they have to sort of, wedge themselves into this very small area without touching these sunshades.
Gyros help us in two ways. When we move from target to target they gyros help the computer know how quickly we are turning. Once we get locked in on a target, those gyros help us steady the vehicle so we can collect all that scientific data and get those great pictures.
David Leckrone
HST Chief Scientist
We’re going to add a new Fine Guidance Sensor, to take the place of one that has shown evidence of failing and not being long for this world.
Thomas Griffin
HST Observatory Manager
Well the Fine Guidance Sensors actually are the components that find the particular observation and they pick two guide stars very close to what is being observed and the Fine Guidance Sensors then zero-in on those guide stars, they lock in on them and now you know you are pointing in the right place in the sky. And then it transfers over to the Rate Sensor Units, the gyroscopes, to hold steady on that object.
Jackie Townsend
WFC3 Instrument Manager
When you’re working with the Hubble Telescope program, anything can happen. And, infact just a few weeks before we were scheduled to launch back in October (2008), the data handling system, the SI C&DH went down.
Kevin Mathews
HST EVA Systems Manager
The SI C and DH is critical to the Hubble Space Telescope because without it, you have no telescope, you have no science information.
Jackie Townsend
WFC3 Instrument Manager
NASA adminstration desided that it would be worth it to postpone the servicing mission so that we can get the flight spare, and test and verify it, and replace it on this servicing mission.
Kevin Mathews
HST EVA Systems Manager
The SI C and DH function is to take the data from the science instruments and, it formats it, it puts it in a command sequence, that is then transmitted to the ground and then deciphered back on the ground.
Without it, you have no science information. And, by putting a new SI C and DH up there you gain the redundancy back and you are not one failure away from no science.
The Soft Capture Mechanism is a device we are putting on the bottom of the telescope. We’re going to convert Hubble from a Shuttle interface, that grabs with three latches on the bottom of Hubble to an Exploration interface, because we are using a similar interface that our Exploration Program is using for the Orion capsule.
So in five minutes we’ll convert from a shuttle based architecture to an Exploration-based architecture for Hubble that will enable sometime in the future for us to dock another space craft, not the space shuttle, to the Hubble for the purpose of making sure that at some point at it’s end of life, it can be safely disposed.
Thomas Griffin
HST Observatory Manager
The batteries we are operating on are the original batteries that were launched with the observatory in 1990. The design life-span was five years. So, these batteries are operating well past what they were designed for. It’s time to change them out. We are losing capacity. We’re installing six new batteries arranged in two modules of three packs each.
Terri Gregory
HST SM4 Thermal Systems Lead
We’re going to install a new outer blanket layer called a NOBL, which is a solid, it’s not a blanket anymore, it’s a solid sheet.
Benjamin Reed
HST Materials Assurance Engineer
We designed a New Outer Blanket Layer that can either lay on top of the degraded blankets, just cover them up…
Terri Gregory
HST SM4 Thermal Systems Lead
Or we will take off the blanket in order to the new radiator against the bay door.
Benjamin Reed
HST Materials Assurance Engineer
And this is a very weather resistant New Outer Blanket Layer that we have designed so it should not degrade appreciably for the next 15 to 20 years.
Jackie Townsend
WFC3 Instrument Manager
So at the end of this servicing mission were we’ve installed new cameras and upgraded all this infrastructure, the whole point of this is that the Hubble Space Telescope will be better than it’s ever been in it’s history and will continue to produce this breath taking and amazing science well into the next decade.
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