NASA Hubble Space Telescope

[Vaigra]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope

I'm going to start off with images of the telescope itself and then images taken by the telescope itself.
This'll be a huge thread-in-progress (I hope) and I hope you'll enjoy the images as much as I do.
I'm going to post them with the titles as it'll give members a better idea as to what they're looking at. If you really don't want the titles on the images, they are also available or these images are easily cropped.


1. The Hubble Space Telescope floats against the background of Earth after a week of repair and upgrade by Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts in 2002.

Hubble’s fourth servicing mission gave the telescope its first new instrument installed since the 1997 repair mission – the Advanced Camera for Surveys. It doubled Hubble’s field of view and records information much faster than Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

2. The Hubble Space Telescope drifts through space in this picture, taken by Space Shuttle Discovery during Hubble’s second servicing mission in 1997. The 10-foot aperture door, open to admit light, closes to block out space debris. The observatory’s solar panels and foil-like thermal blankets are clearly visible. The solar panels provide power, while the thermal blankets protect Hubble from the extreme temperatures of space.

3. The revamped Hubble Space Telescope, fresh from its fourth visit by astronauts, sports new solar arrays on its outside, and new instruments inside. The new solar arrays, which collect sunlight to power the telescope, are smaller than the previous ones, but more powerful. This image was taken shortly after Hubble separated from the Columbia space shuttle in March 2002, making it the most up-to-date picture of the Hubble Space Telescope.

4. The Hubble Space Telescope hovers at the boundary of Earth and space in this picture, taken after Hubble’s second servicing mission in 1997. Hubble drifts 353 miles (569 km) above the Earth’s surface, where it can avoid the atmosphere and clearly see objects in space.

[Wolf03]

And somehow...I don't see the relation between a satellite and a car?

What kind of engine does it have? Top speed? 0 to 100 km/h?

[Vaigra]

And somehow...I don't see the relation between a satellite and a car?

What kind of engine does it have? Top speed? 0 to 100 km/h?

.....

"Wouter opened up the hide out so that everyone can post their hi-res pictures.

Here's the rules:

1. Pictures must be 1024x768 or larger. That's all!

Thanks!
Matt"

[Dan Flynn]

Can't wait for this thread to unfold - the Hubble Telescope is an amazing technical achievement.

[derekthetree]

if you need a hand with the physics (yay) behind the images then i would be glad to give you hand. its my field of expertise

[Vaigra]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope #2

1. The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on a mission to upgrade and repair Hubble in 1999. Once it gets close enough to Hubble, the shuttle uses its robotic arm to tow the telescope into its cargo bay for astronauts to work on. Astronauts routinely visit Hubble to perform maintenance work and install new instruments, thanks to the telescope’s unique construction with replaceable parts.

2. The Hubble Space Telescope rests in the Space Shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay during the third repair mission in December 1999. Hubble must attach to the shuttle for astronauts to perform repairs. Discovery is the shuttle that originally carried Hubble into orbit in 1990. The telescope stretches five stories tall, and the tubular part of its body is 14 feet (4.2 m) across. Its school bus-size bulk completely filled Discovery’s cargo bay during the trip from Earth to space.

3. Astronaut F. Story Musgrave, anchored on the Space Shuttle Endeavor’s robotic arm, prepares to be elevated to the top of the Hubble Space Telescope during Hubble’s first servicing mission in 1993. Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, inside the shuttle payload bay, assists Musgrave.

Hubble’s first servicing mission replaced and repaired various instruments, but its most important task was installing technology that corrected the tiny flaw in Hubble’s main mirror that distorted the telescope’s view. Hubble was specially designed to be repaired and upgraded by astronauts while in orbit.

4. Astronauts Joseph Tanner – on the robotic arm – and Gregory Harbaugh replace the Hubble Space Telescope’s Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) in 1997. The FGS are used to locate and lock onto a target star while science instruments make observations. They can also perform measurements on the positions and motions of stars. Each sensor is more than five feet (1.5 m) wide and three feet (0.9 m) long, and weighs 485 pounds (219 kg). The telescope’s pointing accuracy and stability depend heavily on the Fine Guidance Sensors.

[Vaigra]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope #3

1. Astronaut Steve Smith works on Hubble during the second servicing mission in 1997 with a ratchet. NASA specially designed the power tool to withstand the harsh environment of space, making it an essential item during three different Hubble missions. Hubble was specifically built to be serviced in orbit with replaceable parts and instruments. Astronauts performed four days of spacewalks during the second servicing mission to replace instruments and repair the telescope.

2. Astronaut Steven Smith took this picture of fellow crew member Mark Lee during Hubble’s second servicing mission in 1997. Lee is preparing to document the day’s activities with a shuttle camera. Engineers rely on astronauts’ photos to design and build new hardware for Hubble, and other astronauts use them for training. In addition to the hand-held cameras, the shuttle has cameras mounted to it in various locations to capture other footage.

3. Astronauts remove the Wide Field and Planetary Camera to replace it with its more powerful successor, Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, during Hubble’s first servicing mission in 1993. The camera, shaped something like a grand piano, weighs 610 pounds (277 kg) on Earth, but nothing in space. It can detect stars a billion times fainter than the ones we can see with our eyes. Most of Hubble’s most popular pictures have been taken with this second camera.

4. An astronaut removes the High Resolution Spectrograph in preparation for a newinstrument during the second servicing mission in 1997. Hubble’s science instruments are large and complex. The telescope can hold four telephone-booth sized instruments and four piano-sized instruments.

The High Resolution Spectrograph was replaced by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, which has more expansive capabilities. White light is made up of many colors. Spectrographs break incoming light up into its various parts so that the composition, temperature, motion, and other chemical and physical properties of the object that produced it can be analyzed.

[Vaigra]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope #4

1. Astronaut Kathy Thornton jettisons a damaged solar array panel into space during Hubble’s first servicing mission in 1993. When the solar panels were replaced, astronauts found a bend in the casing of this panel. The panel couldn’t be returned safely to Earth, and was released into space. Eventually the panel will descend into Earth’s atmosphere, where the friction created by the speed of its fall will burn it up, turning it into a shooting star.

Hubble’s solar panels generate power for the telescope by converting sunlight into electricity. The arrays power the telescope and charge its batteries while Hubble is in sunlight. When Hubble moves into the dark portion of its orbit, the batteries provide power.

2. Astronauts headed for Hubble during its second servicing mission in 1997 expected to repair some of the telescope’s outside insulation, which deteriorates in the harsh environment of space. But when they arrived, they discovered more damage than they had expected. Working inside the shuttle, they made patches out of materials in their repair kit. Astronaut Scott Horowitz holds up one of the patches.

3. Hubble is lifted into the upright position at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for its 1990 launch aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. The telescope was designed and built in the 1970s and 1980s, but its launch was delayed by the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. A close look at this image reveals a portion of the 225 feet (68.6 m) of handrails installed around the outside for astronauts to grip during repair mission spacewalks.

4. Workers study Hubble’s main, eight-foot (2.4 m) mirror. Hubble, like all telescopes, plays a kind of pinball game with light to force it to go where scientists need it to go. When light enters Hubble, it reflects off the main mirror and strikes a second, smaller mirror. The light bounces back again, this time through a two-foot (0.6 m) hole in the center of the main mirror, beyond which Hubble’s science instruments wait to capture it. In this photo, the hole is covered up.

[Vaigra]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope #5

1. Engineers in a clean room at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colo., work on one of Hubble’s instruments, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), in 1996. The instrument, installed in Hubble in 1997, breaks light into colors, giving scientists an important analytical tool for studying the cosmos. STIS has been used to study such objects as black holes, new stars, and massive planets forming outside our solar system.

2. Carriers, used to transport Hubble instruments, wait in the largest clean room in the world, Goddard Space Flight Center’s 1.3-million-cubic-foot (0.036 million cubic meters) High Bay Clean Room. Clean rooms are pristine areas kept as free as possible of contaminants that could interfere with delicate technology. The platform used to anchor Hubble to the space shuttle during repair missions is kept here. Astronauts also train in the room for servicing missions.

3. Astronauts train to service Hubble in a huge, water-filled tank that simulates weightlessness. The 40-foot-deep (12 m) tank at NASA’s Johnson Space Center contains full-scale underwater mockups of Hubble, its instruments, and the carriers that hold the instruments. The astronauts wear pressurized suits similar to those they wear in orbit. They spend weeks doing this kind of training, and weeks in class. The astronauts also train using virtual reality, and in a chamber that mimics space temperatures of 200 to minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93 to minus 93 Celsius).

4. Astronauts Steven Smith and John Grunsfeld train in a Goddard Space Flight Center clean room on a backup of an electrical section of Hubble in 1999. The electrical section holds transmitters, batteries, recorders and electronics that operate various parts of Hubble. The astronauts wear “bunny suits,” special coveralls, hoods, gloves, boots and masks that protect the sensitive equipment from particles that could interfere with its performance.

[Matt]

And somehow...I don't see the relation between a satellite and a car?

What kind of engine does it have? Top speed? 0 to 100 km/h?

When nopassn and I first talked about making these space/plane threads, we knew that at least one person was going to pop in and make this stupid comment about it not being a car.

Here's my reply: Who gives a shit?

[nopassn]

And somehow...I don't see the relation between a satellite and a car?

What kind of engine does it have? Top speed? 0 to 100 km/h?

don't be a dick... if you can't play nice, perhaps you sould troll back over to "that other site"

[Vaigra]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope #6

1. At Hubble’s control center at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., in 2005, Shift Supervisor Larry Stake uses a series of consoles to monitor Hubble operations. All the commands transmitted to Hubble, including the instructions on recording scientific data and orders on which stars to observe, come from these consoles. The shift supervisor is responsible for overall operations and the health and safety of Hubble.

Hubble is monitored constantly by four teams, each made up of a quartet of flight controllers. The flight controllers deal with operations ranging from pointing the telescope to receiving data.

2. At Hubble’s control center at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., in 2005, Shift Supervisor Larry Stake uses a series of consoles to monitor Hubble operations. All the commands transmitted to Hubble, including the instructions on recording scientific data and orders on which stars to observe, come from these consoles. The shift supervisor is responsible for overall operations and the health and safety of Hubble.

Hubble is monitored constantly by four teams, each made up of a quartet of flight controllers. The flight controllers deal with operations ranging from pointing the telescope to receiving data.

[Vaigra]

I'll get started on the shots taken by the Hubble itself tomorrow I think.

[Birdman]

I've heard that it orbits the earth in 90 minutes.

[Wolf03]

Holy s***....all I asked was what this has to do with cars....damn people...taking everything so seriously...