The Hubble Space Telescope was found to be out of focus after it was launched in 1990, due to a flaw in its primary mirror. This issue was corrected in 1993 during a servicing mission, which installed corrective optics to fix the problem and improve the telescope's imaging capabilities.
The slight optical defect (known as a spherical aberration, and less than 4 microns, 1/5 the thickness of a human hair) discovered in the Hubble's primary mirror after it was deployed in space, was corrected by a system known as COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement). Built by Ball Aerospace, it was manufactured and tested between the Hubble's first deployment and her First Servicing Mission in 1993.COSTAR (since replaced, as all Hubble instruments installed after the FSM have corrective optics) worked much like corrective eyeglasses, using a system of tiny mirrors to correct for the flaw. The result of COSTAR's installation (and all of us who worked on it waited with our breath held until it was operational and the first pictures were in) was nothing less than spectacular, restoring Hubble to its original design specifications.
It was actually 1.5 billion dollars. However, first images came back from the Hubble blurred, due to a faulty mirror. This was a big and even dangerous job to fix, and on top of that, it brought the total cost up to around $6 Billion USD. Ouch.
space shuttles fix all kinds off satelites they help fix any kind of spacecraft.the space shuttles have been launching since 1977 from NASA.space shuttles are very useful space craft to help fix things in outer space .by George Philip if you like space shuttles a lot there is a Lego set
ORIGINSNo one person ever "invents" or builds a spacecraft; it is a collaboration of individuals, companies, governments, etc., over a period of many years.Like all NASA projects, HST began many years ago as a scientific proposal that eventually found its way into creation as a scientific instrument, spacecraft, probe, satellite, etc. Though it typically takes 3-5 years for a project to be completed once the Design Reviews are performed, the engineering designs and other key elements that bring a project to life begins years before actual manufacturing work is begun.The Hubble Telescope can trace its origins to 1946, when noted astronomer Lyman Spitzer ("Father of the Space Telescope") wrote his paper entitled "Astronomical Advantages of an Extraterrestrial Observatory". Spitzer (NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is named for him) pushed many years of his career for the development of a space based observatory, and in 1965 he was appointed head of a committee with the task of defining the parameters and objectives for an orbiting observatory.FIRST SPACE OBSERVATORIESSpace-based observatories are hardly novel - the first observatory was launched in 1962 by NASA was the Orbiting Solar Observatory, which gathered X-ray, UV, and Gamma Ray data), and the British launched their own orbiting solar observatory around the same time. In 1966, NASA launched the first Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), whose battery failed after only 3 days. Its successor, OAO-2, launched in 1968, was much different however; it continued to operate and send UV data on stars and galaxies until 1972, well past its project life of 1 year.ADVANTAGES OF SPACE-BASED OBSERVATORIESAside from the obvious advantage of not being hindered by filtering problems due to Earth's atmosphere, space observatories can view any part of the universe it's pointed at; ground based observatories are limited to the area of sky they can view because they're on a fixed point on the Earth's surface, and can only view a limited amount of the sky in its area of vision as it rotates. While modern ground telescopes have claimed to now have better resolution capability than Hubble, what they fail to mention is that the algorithms and technology used to gain those advances were largely due to technology developed for Hubble and other space observatories.HUBBLE BIRTHThe ultimate success of the OSO/OAO programs and the data they produced convinced many in the scientific community that there were huge benefits to be gained from a space-based observatory, and in 1968 NASA began firm plans to design and build an observatory provisionally known as either the Large Orbiting Telescope (LOS) or Large Space Telescope (LST), with a provisional launch date in 1979. NASA always gives a project an initial name; as the project comes to life, it will often rename it for a specific person who made key contributions to the area of study the instrument or satellite is focusing on.For the next 10 years the project languished in the government funding quagmire; though there were major lobbying efforts and strong support for LST by the scientific community, Congress wasn't as eager to give up the money required for such a bold venture, and budget cuts and changes eventually led to NASA collaborating with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the project. The ESA agreed to help fund the project, provide solar arrays and one of the first instruments, in exchange for a guarantee of at least 15% observation time for its scientists. The ESA also provided personnel to assist in the construction of the LST.Construction finally began in the late '70's, with 2 key NASA Centers having overall responsibility; Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland (ground and scientific instrument control), and Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama (design, development & construction). Perkin-Elmer was given the contract by MSFC to build the large mirror (Optical Telescope Array) and the LST's Fine Guidance Sensors (responsible for precise positioning of the telescope during observations), and aerospace giant Lockheed was given the task of building the spacecraft required to house all of the instruments and support systems. I still remember seeing it being constructed in 1984 at MSFC - little did I know then that in 7 years I'd be working on it for GSFC.LARGE SPACE TELESCOPE RENAMEDIn 1983, NASA formally renamed the Large Space Telescope the Hubble Space Telescope, in honor of American Astronomer Edwin P. Hubble (November 20, 1889 - September 28, 1953), who made the key discovery that the universe is in fact expanding, and demonstrated that other galaxies exist besides the Milky Way. It is a long-standing NASA tradition to name spacecraft for those who have made key contributions in the field a particular experiment or observatory is going to be used for.SERVICING MISSIONSEarly on, it was determined that HST should be designed to be maintained in orbit, and the plans for the Shuttle program fell into those plans. This single key design factor has kept the project alive for nearly 20 years. To date, there have been 5 servicing missions to maintain HST; SM1, SM2, SM3A, SM3B, and SM4. SM3 was split into 2 separate missions after the NICMOS experiment, installed on the 1997 SM2 mission, began to lose its solid nitrogen cooling source much faster than was designed due to an undetected thermal short. A fix was quickly devised, the NICMOS Cryocooler System, a hi-speed cryogenic turbine (the blades are the diameter of a dime) that pumps liquid helium through the original pipes used to originally freeze the nitrogen. The installation of the NCS system and additional cooling systems to compensate for the added heat generated from its electronics, and the failure of 4 of HST's 6 onboard gyros (prompting replacement to be scheduled for SM3A) is why the mission was split into 2 parts.LEGACY / BENEFITSHST, though delayed by the shutdown of the Space Program after the Challenger accident, and the initial problem with its primary mirror, has ultimately proven to be the premier observatory the world recognizes. Some of the most stunning pictures and discoveries in the universe have come as a direct result of HST's observations.In addition to solving some of Astronomy's long-standing problems and fueling the imagination of millions, everyday people have benefited from HST technology as well. Digital cameras and imaging technology, SSD/Flash Drives, Lithium Ion batteries, etc., all owe their origins to technology directly or indirectly used for HST, among many other devices used by ordinary people. As one of 4 observatories in NASA's "Great Observatories" program (the other 3 are the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), the Chandra X-Ray Telescope, and the Spitzer Space Telescope), it has proven that its benefits have been worth the cost.Other space telescopes are planned - the James Webb Space Telescope (many former HST personnel are now working on it), an Infrared telescope, will be much different, in that it won't view the optical spectrum and will orbit at Lagrangian Point 2 (L2), past the orbit of the Moon. Several other space observatories are already in orbit at the L2 point.The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) will be the true successor to HST, if the proposed project ever comes to fruition. Also planned to be orbited at the Sun-Earth L2 point, its proposed mirror will be several times larger than HST's, and will be able to view in several wavelengths, including the optical, which JWST isn't designed to do.
when there are problems with the hubble space telescope, astronomers send astronauts to go fix the problem.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour was used to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993 during the STS-61 mission. The crew installed corrective optics to fix the telescope's flawed vision.
The Hubble Space Telescope was found to be out of focus after it was launched in 1990, due to a flaw in its primary mirror. This issue was corrected in 1993 during a servicing mission, which installed corrective optics to fix the problem and improve the telescope's imaging capabilities.
By giving it "eyeglasses" just like your optometrist does to fix your vision. Initially by replacing the "High Speed Photometer" unit with the "Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement" unit. Later instruments had their own "eyeglasses", making the "Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement" unit unnecessary and it was replaced with the new "Cosmic Origins Spectrograph" unit.
The best known Hubble repair mission was to install a fix to some flawed optics aboard the telescope. Other missions have been to replace other aging hardware and install more capable equipment for more advanced research.
Once the Space Telescope project had been given the go-ahead, work on the program was divided among many institutions. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was given responsibility for the design, development, and construction of the telescope, while theGoddard Space Flight Center was given overall control of the scientific instruments and ground-control center for the mission. MSFC commissioned the optics company Perkin-Elmer to design and build the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) and Fine Guidance Sensors for the space telescope. Lockheed was commissioned to construct the spacecraft in which the telescope would be housed. Perkin-Elmer was commissioned to build the optical components of the Hubble Space Telescope. The construction of the main mirror was begun in 1979 and polishing completed in 1981 in Danbury Connecticut.
They will pull it back to Earth. It will get burned up long before it hits the ground. The reason for doing this is because the HST is getting old and it would take too much time and money to fix it.
The slight optical defect (known as a spherical aberration, and less than 4 microns, 1/5 the thickness of a human hair) discovered in the Hubble's primary mirror after it was deployed in space, was corrected by a system known as COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement). Built by Ball Aerospace, it was manufactured and tested between the Hubble's first deployment and her First Servicing Mission in 1993.COSTAR (since replaced, as all Hubble instruments installed after the FSM have corrective optics) worked much like corrective eyeglasses, using a system of tiny mirrors to correct for the flaw. The result of COSTAR's installation (and all of us who worked on it waited with our breath held until it was operational and the first pictures were in) was nothing less than spectacular, restoring Hubble to its original design specifications.
It was actually 1.5 billion dollars. However, first images came back from the Hubble blurred, due to a faulty mirror. This was a big and even dangerous job to fix, and on top of that, it brought the total cost up to around $6 Billion USD. Ouch.
Use your rench to fix the telescope
In space, has the chance of being hit by debree, but you can get better images, and better info. Also if something goes wrong it will take awhile to fix it. On Earth, Can be fixed fast, but cannot get as better info from in space telescopes.
the initial problem was=== the reflecting (lens/mirror) was improperly ground due to the thickness of a 25 cent washer used in the grinding machine that made the lens. the problem was solved by insalling corrective (lenses/mirrors) shaped like pringles potato chips. sounds crazy but its true. bob winters hannacroix n y. there is a particular name for this shape but i cant remember it except that its l o n g.