When NASA determined
within the Seventies that the Hubble House Telescope needs to be serviceable in area, the engineering challenges will need to have appeared practically insurmountable. How may a machine that advanced and delicate be repaired by astronauts carrying 130-kilogram fits with thick gloves?
In the long run, spacewalkers not solely mounted the telescope, they usually remade it.
That was doable as a result of engineers designed Hubble to be
toroidal, its main programs specified by wedge-shaped tools bays that astronauts may open from the skin. A collection of upkeep workstations on the telescope’s outer floor ensured astronauts may have prepared entry to essential telescope components.
On 5 space-shuttle
servicing missions between 1993 and 2009, 16 spacewalkers changed each main element besides the telescope’s mirrors and outer pores and skin. They elevated its electrical provide by 20 p.c. And so they tripled its potential 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 crew 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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