1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,200 Tale of Two Telescopes: Science Operations. Hubble Space Telescope, WFIRST. 2 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:13,110 I'm a doctor Kenneth carpenter I'm an astrophysicist, I work my research area 3 00:00:13,110 --> 00:00:18,359 is looking at stars that are both cooler and more evolved than the Sun. 4 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:23,020 My name is Mark postman I am a distinguished astronomer at the Space 5 00:00:23,020 --> 00:00:28,800 Telescope Science Institute, where I'm currently the chair of the science staff at STScI. 6 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:33,540 When I first began, I worked as a postdoctoral research assistant on 7 00:00:33,540 --> 00:00:37,469 one of the original Hubble instruments team. So one of the instruments that was 8 00:00:37,469 --> 00:00:42,870 built before launch and was on Hubble when it first launched I joined that in 9 00:00:42,870 --> 00:00:49,890 the mid 1980s so it's been 36 years since I did that. 10 00:00:49,890 --> 00:00:55,260 So I joined Space Telescope Science Institute in the summer of 1989, so that's a little over 11 00:00:55,260 --> 00:01:01,980 30 years ago. It was when I came on to the staff at STScI was about eight 12 00:01:01,980 --> 00:01:08,159 months prior to the launch of Hubble Space Telescope. 13 00:01:08,159 --> 00:01:14,430 And on WFIRST if you count all of the preliminary -- the preceding mission concepts to WFIRST 14 00:01:14,430 --> 00:01:21,600 it's been about 12 years. I have been working on WFIRST in various forms 15 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:27,869 since about the year 2012. One of my roles as head of the community missions 16 00:01:27,869 --> 00:01:34,680 office was to help the Institute get a key role in the operations of WFIRST. 17 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:40,700 The aspect of Hubble operations that it made it very unique and has led to the 18 00:01:40,700 --> 00:01:45,619 tremendous success of the mission is that it was designed for servicing 19 00:01:45,619 --> 00:01:51,060 designed to be serviced by astronauts using the Space Shuttle about every 3 to 20 00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:56,189 5 years that meant we could both maintain the mission as things broke but 21 00:01:56,189 --> 00:02:00,990 we could also upgrade the science instruments each time that that is the 22 00:02:00,990 --> 00:02:06,530 secret to how we kept the Hubble mission on the leading edge of science as 23 00:02:06,530 --> 00:02:11,190 America's, as the world's premier Observatory in space. 24 00:02:11,190 --> 00:02:16,650 The main difference between and WFIRST is that Hubble has a very 25 00:02:16,650 --> 00:02:22,680 narrow field of view, it provides great clarity wherever it looks but any-- the 26 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:27,150 size of the patch of sky Hubble can see at any one time is pretty small, in fact 27 00:02:27,150 --> 00:02:33,360 in the 30 years that Hubble has been in operation even though it's made almost a 28 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:38,670 million observations and it's looked at many different parts of the sky, it's 29 00:02:38,670 --> 00:02:48,360 actually only imaged about 0.1 percent of the entire sky. WFIRST, by contrast, has about 30 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:54,870 a hundred times the field of view of Hubble and has the same clarity that 31 00:02:54,870 --> 00:02:59,700 Hubble has when it looks at a part of the universe so it's really gonna change 32 00:02:59,700 --> 00:03:05,540 our capability in terms of our ability to map out a very crystal clear quality 33 00:03:05,540 --> 00:03:13,319 what we see when we look at the sky. And WFIRST instead of about 45 square 34 00:03:13,319 --> 00:03:19,109 degrees that Hubble has looked at over 30 years in about five years WFIRST is 35 00:03:19,109 --> 00:03:24,630 going to look at well over 2,000 square degrees of sky and so it's gonna be a 36 00:03:24,630 --> 00:03:30,329 real revolution in our ability to study the distant universe dark matter and 37 00:03:30,329 --> 00:03:36,180 dark energy. I think Hubble has really taught us the 38 00:03:36,180 --> 00:03:45,420 importance of really good public outreach. More than once the public has come 39 00:03:45,420 --> 00:03:49,530 to the rescue of Hubble, either in getting servicing missions signed or 40 00:03:49,530 --> 00:03:55,829 extending it its operations and that's because people feel invested in Hubble, 41 00:03:55,829 --> 00:04:00,510 they feel involved in it because we've out over the years we've reached out to 42 00:04:00,510 --> 00:04:04,739 them we've made them feel involved we've given them access to the beautiful 43 00:04:04,739 --> 00:04:09,239 pictures because it's not just doing wonderful science which is great and 44 00:04:09,239 --> 00:04:13,739 should be a justification all by itself, but it you know, it means something to me 45 00:04:13,739 --> 00:04:18,120 as as a member of the public, I see this stuff and am like wow that is gorgeous 46 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:21,420 you let me get that image and put it up on my desktop or you know 47 00:04:21,420 --> 00:04:28,380 blow it up and put it up on my wall and I think you know that kind of connection 48 00:04:28,380 --> 00:04:32,790 that people is very very important so I'd like to make sure that we do that 49 00:04:32,790 --> 00:04:38,880 for WFIRSTas well as we've done it for Hubble over the years. 50 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:43,380 Explore NASA.