When NASA determined
within the Nineteen Seventies that the Hubble House Telescope ought to be serviceable in area, the engineering challenges should have appeared almost insurmountable. How might a machine that complicated and delicate be repaired by astronauts sporting 130-kilogram fits with thick gloves?
In the long run, spacewalkers not solely mounted the telescope, they repeatedly remade it.
That was doable as a result of engineers designed Hubble to be
toroidal, its main methods specified by wedge-shaped gear bays that astronauts might open from the surface. A sequence of upkeep workstations on the telescope’s outer floor ensured astronauts might have prepared entry to essential telescope elements.
On 5 space-shuttle
servicing missions between 1993 and 2009, 16 spacewalkers changed each main part besides the telescope’s mirrors and outer pores and skin. They elevated its electrical provide by 20 %. They usually tripled its means to pay attention and sense mild, job one in every of any telescope.
The now legendary orbital observatory was constructed to final 15 years in area. However with updates, it has operated for greater than 30—a historical past of invention and re-invention to make any engineering group proud. “Twice the lifetime,” says astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, who flew on Hubble’s 1990 launch mission. “Simply attempt discovering one thing else that has improved with age in area. I dare you.”
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