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[ INTENSE MUSIC ]

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-We have lock, and are good to send that command.
We have thirty-one minutes and thirty-two

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seconds for our support.

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Go for status buffer dump.

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-Because the Hubble Space Telescope is so scientifically
effective right now, scientists are using

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Hubble to investigate some of the deepest
mysteries of the universe.

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-One of the primary things Hubble has been
doing is looking at

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the atmospheres around exoplanets.

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-If you had asked the guys who built Hubble
and designed Hubble, they would have sworn

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that Hubble could never ever do this.

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-That's one of the things I love about Hubble
is that it ends up giving us new questions,

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new mysteries to explore.

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Hubble In The Sky

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Hubble In The Sky

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Episode 2: An Unexpected Journey

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-My name is Larry Dunham. I'm the chief systems engineer

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for flight systems here on the Hubble Space Telescope.

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I started on the Hubble program back in the
summer of 1982, when Hubble was being built

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out in California. First telescope, in space,
to be designed so that we've got what we call

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orbital replacement units. They're modular
boxes with handrails on them so the astronauts

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can go up and just pick and play. They've
got nice connectors on them that make it easy

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for the astronauts with their big gloves to
be able to put them in and out.

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-We've had five servicing missions.

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We have replaced some equipment multiple times,

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especially the instruments. We're always
going with the advanced technology.

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-The telescope we have today on orbit is not
the telescope that we launched originally.

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We've been able to replace all five of our
science instruments with instruments that

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have the technology that didn't even exist
when Hubble was being built originally.

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-The Hubble Space Telescope is really an observatory

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because it has several science instruments,

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several modes of operation. We have multiple
cameras, multiple spectrographs. They each

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have different capabilities in terms of their
sensitivities or the kinds of frequencies

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they can receive of the electromagnetic spectrum.
We can also use Hubble in different kinds

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of intriguing modes depending on what we're
trying to observe.

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-There are different types of observing scenarios,

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and one of the things the scientists have been able to do

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is they've been able to come
up with very interesting and unique observing

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scenarios that allow them to do science that
they never thought they could do before.

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-Because the Hubble Space Telescope has been
operating for a long time, it's giving us

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what we need to explore the universe in deep
ways that would never have been possible when

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Hubble was first launched. For example, scientists
wondered whether we could use Hubble in an

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innovative mode in recent years, basically
scanning objects slowly, instead of just staring

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at them. In some cases that gives us a higher
sensitivity to what we're trying to observe.

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And we're using that special mode on Hubble
now to get better information about many types

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of things in space, including to be able to
study planets around other stars, what we

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call exoplanets, planets outside of our own
solar system.

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-What Hubble’s been able to do is as the
planets go in front of the stars that they're

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going around, the spectrographs can detect
changes,

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very small changes in the spectrum. This has
allowed them to do exoplanet atmospheric studies.

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This is something that Hubble has sort of
really stepped up to the plate. It has been

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just phenomenally good at.

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The spectrographs have really sort of been
leading that, if you ever see things about,

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oh, a new exoplanet was discovered that has
this in the atmosphere or that in the atmosphere,

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and we think it's made of this, it's the spectrographs
which have shown you that kind of information.

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For doing a lot of the exoplanet observations,
you have to catch what's known as a transit.

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One, the orbit of the exoplanet has to be

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such that it's going to go between you and

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the star it's going around.

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We can't just do an exoplanet observation whenever we want

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or whenever it's convenient. We have to do

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an exoplanet observation when it's first starting

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to go into the star, and so they have to know
very accurately the timing of that.

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We have to schedule it ahead of time. This
is not something that Hubble can get around

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to when it wants to. We have to say no, at
this point in time on this date, you have

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to be pointed here and you have to be looking
here. We had to really think about how to

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schedule this. A lot of thought goes into
it. A lot of thought goes into the planning

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and of the execution.

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-The Hubble operations team are quite willing
and capable of using the telescope in new

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modes and new, innovative ways that enable
us to accomplish science that we wouldn't

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otherwise be able to accomplish.

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We asked them, would it be possible
to use Hubble to track something moving quickly

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across the sky? And they figured out a way
to use Hubble in a fast-tracking mode that

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enabled us to do explorations and discoveries
that astronomers didn't envision using Hubble

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for when it was first designed.

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-Now when we're observing our planets, when
we're observing Jupiter, or Saturn, or Uranus,

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or Neptune, they move also. You have to move
the telescope because they're just going around

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the Sun. They're actually moving because they're
really moving, so we have to move with them.

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Or if we’re observing asteroids or comets
you have to chase after them.

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-'Oumuamua, we know came from outside of our solar system,

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is like a big asteroid that was detected

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whizzing through our solar system. We wanted to use Hubble

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to observe this as well. And we were able to track it

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and this was not a simple operation.
It's moving at

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more than a hundred thousand miles an hour, so
being able to observe this and track it is

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a wonderful capability that the operations
team has enabled Hubble to have.

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spot, now we have to get in the exact
location to put the target in

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the science instrument aperture.

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-The telescope is big, it's massive. It moves
about the same speed as the minute hand on

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a clock, so to move from pointing at one thing
to go completely around the other one, takes

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us a half an hour. It is not a very fast motion.

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We actually use a very interesting technique.
It's using Newton's third law. We have these

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very large reaction wheels on it. They're
about two feet across, very very heavy,

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very very massive wheels. You start spinning those
wheels one way, the telescope will spin a little

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bit in the opposite direction.
This is how we can move the telescope from

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one part of the sky to another
part of the sky.

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-Once we've moved the reaction wheels and we've
moved the telescope so we're in the right

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spot, now we have to get in the exact
location to put the target in

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the science instrument aperture.

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-What's going to happen now is the FGSs are
going to start talking to the telescope, talking

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to the flight software computer and saying,
I want you to move the telescope over here

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a little bit to be able to position the science
for the science aperture.

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-Most of the time we use the Hubble Space Telescope
to do observations that have been planned

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quite a bit in advance. Observers around the
world, astronomers will write proposals. We

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will then take those accepted proposals and
observe whatever it is that the astronomer

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has proposed, but sometimes there are things
that happen that are unexpected or rapid events

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that we need a more rapid response.

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-We have a capability of what we call a target of opportunity,

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and that's when something unexpected

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happens in the universe that astronomers,
they want to immediately jump on that as fast

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as possible with Hubble. Case in point was
the gravitational wave detection of two neutron

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stars colliding. The target of opportunity
was submitted for Hubble to actually go look

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at the remnant, and see if we could find it.

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-We had the engineers run through it, we got
new commanding sequences from the Space Telescope

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Science Institute. We're able to run all that
through and then

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we executed on orbit.

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-We have to respond very fast to produce a
new schedule and set of command loads.

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-We can modify a lot of the flight software,
modify how the instruments are commanded.

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It allows us to change. We can
react very quickly.

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What Hubble has done compared to what we were
thinking Hubble could do is just amazing. Hubble’s

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had its fingers in almost everything. The
neutron star collision. Looking for all the

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supernovae, all this stuff going on with dark
matter, dark energy, exoplanets. Hubble has

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just been constantly finding new things. Now
we're looking at these interstellar comets

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and these interstellar asteroids visiting
us. It's really been spectacular to watch.

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-There really are two key aspects to Hubble's
design that have enabled us to last

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the 30 years that we have, and that is really
the redundancy that we have on board, and

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then it's the servicing, putting in new and
improved instruments, and being able to improve

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the hardware with lessons learned over the
30 years of Hubble operations.

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We are now at our peak performance.

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-The Hubble Space Telescope has had a profound
impact, not only on astronomy. It showed that

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humans in space and science can go hand in
hand to enable us to explore space in richer

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ways than we could ever do with either just
astronauts alone or just with instrumentation

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alone. By using these skills together, new
vistas of exploration are open to us, and

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that lesson is something we're still benefiting
from as we envision future space exploration.

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“Go ahead?” “We have a go for release.”
“Okay, Charlie."

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-It's amazing with a program that's lasted,
the duration that Hubble has lasted, that

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the astronomers up at the Space Telescope
Science Institute continue to come up with

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new things that they want to try to do with
Hubble, and we certainly hope that we'll be

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able to continue to provide that kind of capability
to them until the late 2020s and beyond.

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Hubble Eye In The Sky

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[ INTENSE MUSIC ]