A second space shuttle that would be launched to rescue a stranded Hubble Space Telescope servicing crew in case of an emergency, was recently rolled out at the Kennedy Space Centre.
NASA ordered the backup to reduce some of the risks with flying the Hubble mission, which takes place too far from the space station for the outpost to serve as a temporary shelter for Atlantis’s crew in case of an emergency.
On October 14, 2008, astronauts will board the Space Shuttle Atlantis for Servicing Mission 4 (SM4), the final trip to the Hubble Telescope. This mission will extend the Hubble’s life by several years into at least 2014.
According to NASA, the astronauts will undertake five spacewalks, during which they will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones, and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope working. Atlantis will be carrying two new science instruments for Hubble, replacement batteries, and gyroscopes and repair kits to fix two of its cameras.
After this mission, Hubble will be more powerful than it has ever been. This is in large part due to the fact that two very high technology new scientific instruments are being put on Hubble.
First, a new camera will be fitted that’s capable of surveying the universe to very great depth over a very wide range of colours, from the ultraviolet, which is blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, to the near-infrared, which is impeded by the Earth’s atmosphere, and all of the range of colours and wavelengths in between.
In addition, a cosmic origin spectrograph will be installed which will be the most sensitive device of its type ever placed in orbit. Therefore, we’ll be able to look farther out across the universe and take these rainbow-of-colour measurements on objects much farther away than we’ve been able to do in the past.
The $2 billion Hubble Telescope vaulted into space aboard the Shuttle Discovery in 1990, and the spectacular images it has beamed back to Earth ever since have captured the public imagination: enabling the earthbound to observe the universe as it was 12 billion years ago; peering into black holes at the centre of galaxies and observing the oldest burned-out stars in the Milky Way along with colliding galaxies and roiling caverns of dust and gas.
The Hubble telescope was originally designed to be launched and serviced by the space shuttle, by astronaut crews in space suits going out on spacewalks. There have been four such trips so far, with 18 completely successful Extra-Vehicular Activities, EVAs, on past missions. However, those missions were accomplished during a period of time when NASA didn’t realize what the threats to safety within the space shuttle itself were.
The Columbia tragedy in 2003 was a rude awakening to the dangers. Seven astronauts died because the shuttle was damaged during launch and broke apart during its return through Earth’s atmosphere for landing. Shuttle crews now inspect their ships for damage during flight.
David Leckrone, Hubble senior project scientist, says that Hubble is so important because it’s given the first clear view to humankind of what the universe really looks like.
“I think we’re all very curious about where we’ve come from and where we’re going. We’re all attracted to the night sky and what’s up there, and what’s beyond the next star. I think that at heart we’re all Trekkies, and although we can’t literally fly across the universe in a Starship Enterprise, the Hubble can take us across the universe as a vicarious trip. I think ultimately Hubble has inspired people from all walks of life. And I think it also makes Americans very proud, that this is something positive that we have accomplished as a people.”
The ESA (European Space Agency) has produced a wonderful DVD, ‘Hubble: 15 years of Discovery’, which may still be available from Astronomy Ireland, and gives a breathtaking, if disturbing view of what the Hubble telescope is teaching us about our universe. For more information, check out the ESA website www.spacetelescope.org
One of its marvellous images, a composite of Jupiter storms.