Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Essentials

Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Essentials
15.09.08


Galaxies from the early universe. The birthplaces of planets. Dark matter. Dark energy. Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has brought these mysteries into focus, its powerful gaze scanning the universe for the details planet-bound telescopes find impossible to detect. Far above the Earth's surface, Hubble floats clear of the planet's light-distorting atmosphere, beaming back images that have transfixed humanity and changed the scientific world. Hubble's triumphs continue to accumulate thanks to a unique design that allows astronauts to repair and upgrade the telescope while it remains in orbit. Repairs keep the telescope functioning smoothly, while upgrades to the instruments bring a slew of new discoveries and science.

On October 10, 2008, astronauts will board the Space Shuttle Atlantis for Servicing Mission 4 (SM4), the final trip to the Hubble Telescope. Over the course of five spacewalks, they will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones, and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning at least into 2014. The effort-intensive, rigorously researched, exhaustively tested mission also involves diverse groups of people on the ground throughout the country.

Ready, Set, Go
The mission's planning is years in the making, and its success will be the product of months of intensive preparation and the work of hundreds of people at NASA and in academia and industry.

Astronauts train at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas, where they learn to deal with weightlessness in a giant water tank in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, and at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where they enter Goddard's huge intensively filtered "clean room" to work with the actual equipment they'll use and install aboard Hubble. Goddard prepares and tests instruments and hardware, while Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepares the space shuttle for the mission.

During SM4, teams at Johnson and Goddard work around the clock to make sure the mission succeeds. Johnson's Mission Control Center monitors the space shuttle and astronauts, and supervises spacewalks, procedures, crew activities and health, as well as shuttle systems and experiments.

Hubble personnel, including managers, scientists, and engineers from Goddard and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland, will be split between supporting the mission at Johnson and those working at Goddard.At Goddard, where the Hubble program is administered, the Space Telescope Operations Control Center controls the telescope itself, giving the commands that prepare the telescope for the astronauts' activities and test the newly installed equipment. Goddard's Control Center closes the door that protects the telescope's delicate optics, and maneuvers Hubble into position as the shuttle Atlantis approaches.

When the shuttle is about 200 feet (60 m) away from Hubble, Goddard will command the telescope to execute a roll that brings it into position for grappling. Astronauts use the shuttle's robotic arm to capture Hubble and dock it in the shuttle's cargo bay.

Next, the astronauts begin their series of five six-and-a-half-hour spacewalks. Two astronauts work outside on Hubble at a time. One mainly handles the free-floating tasks. The other is connected by a foot restraint to the robotic arm, which is operated by a third astronaut from within the shuttle. To keep themselves from accidentally floating away, the astronauts attach safety tethers to a cable that runs along the cargo bay. Hubble was built with handrails that also make it easy for astronauts to cling to the telescope.

Out With the OldMany of the telescope's components, especially the instruments, were designed to be easily removed and replaced during servicing missions. This mission's primary scientific priority is the installation of Hubble's new instruments, Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS).

Wide Field Camera 3 will be the power behind studies of dark energy and dark matter, the formation of individual stars and the discovery of extremely remote galaxies previously beyond Hubble's vision. WFC3 sees three different kinds of light: near-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared, though not simultaneously. The camera's range is much greater than that of the instruments currently aboard.

Astronauts will remove Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) to make room for WFC3. WFC3 has a higher "resolution," or ability to distinguish details, and a larger "field of view," or area the camera is able to see, than WFPC2.

Galaxy evolution, the formation of planets, the rise of the elements needed for life, and the "cosmic web" of gas between galaxies will be some of the areas of study for the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). A spectrograph is an instrument that breaks light into its component colors, revealing information about the object emitting the light. COS sees exclusively in ultraviolet light and will improve Hubble's ultraviolet sensitivity at least 10 times, and up to 70 times when observing extremely faint objects.

COS will take the place of the device installed in Hubble during the first servicing mission to correct Hubble's flawed mirror, the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR). Since the first servicing mission, all of Hubble's replacement instruments have had technology built in to them to correct Hubble's marred vision, making COSTAR no longer necessary.

Two of Hubble's instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), are in need of repair. ACS, which partially stopped working in 2007 due to an electrical short, is the "workhorse camera" responsible for some of Hubble's most spectacular images. STIS is a spectrograph that sees ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light, and is known for its ability to hunt black holes. While COS works best with small sources of light, such as stars or quasars, STIS can map out larger objects like galaxies. STIS suffered a power failure in 2004 and was put into hibernation to preserve the possibility of its repair.

Astronauts plan to fix both – a challenging prospect since these repairs are beyond the scope of Hubble’s serviceable design. Hubble’s creators envisioned astronauts swapping out components, not performing delicate surgeries during spacewalks.

An interior electronics box of ACS that supplies power for ACS detectors, contains equipment affected by an electrical short. However, its location makes it inaccessible to astronauts. So instead of trying to reach the problem area, astronauts will attempt to bypass those power-shorted components entirely.

The failed power supply is connected by cables to a series of electronics boards, which are within reach but have no power because of the damaged box. Astronauts will install a new power supply to a handrail on the ACS outer enclosure, remove the electronics boards and install different ones that are compatible with the new power supply, and connect them to the new supply with exterior cables. The arrangement simply cuts the damaged box out of the equation.

STIS needs a new power supply circuit board. The repair would be relatively easy but for the electronics access panel, which was never meant to be opened and is attached to STIS by 111 small screws. The screws are hard to grasp with the astronauts' gloved hands, and could create problems if they were to escape and float around the electronics. So engineers have created a "fastener capture plate" that fits over the top of the panel. When the astronauts remove the screws, they will be trapped in the plate. Astronauts will then switch out the power supply circuit board and close off the open electronics with a new, simpler panel that attaches easily with two levers.

As each of Hubble's instruments and components is repaired or installed, Goddard performs tests to ensure that everything is working correctly. Once the work is completed, Hubble will be ready for peak performance with a grand total of five instruments: WFC3, COS, ACS, STIS and the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS).

Routine Maintenance
But before it can try out its new equipment, the telescope needs maintenance. Hubble's batteries store the energy that powers the telescope during the "nighttime" portion of its orbit, when the Earth blocks the Sun's rays. Astronauts will replace all six of Hubble's 125-pound batteries with new, more effective versions.

The telescope's six gyroscopes are part of the system that points the telescope. When all six gyroscopes are functioning, three gyroscopes are used for pointing, and the other three are held in reserve. Time has degraded the gyroscopes to the point where three have failed, two are in use, and a third is turned off to be used as an emergency backup. Astronauts will install six new gyroscopes.

Hubble's Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) lock onto guide stars, helping the telescope point. They can also be used as instruments to measure the position of stars in relation to other stars. Astronauts will replace one worn-out FGS with a refurbished model that was removed during a previous servicing mission.

Hubble's insulating blankets, which maintain the telescope's normal operating temperature, eventually break down because of their exposure to space. Astronauts will cover key Hubble equipment bays in fresh insulation, also called a New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL).

Finally, they will install a new device, the "soft capture mechanism." This simple device will allow a robotic spacecraft to attach itself to Hubble someday, once the telescope is at the end of its life.

When the astronauts have finished all of their tasks, they will use the robotic arm again to release the telescope, and Goddard will issue the commands to bring the telescope back into operation. But before Hubble's science mission can resume, the telescope will undergo a several-month-long testing and calibrating period. The first new images from the telescope will be released in early 2009.

Restored and updated, Hubble will continue on its journey around the Earth, its new components merging seamlessly with the old, a rejuvenated telescope ready for years of groundbreaking revelations from the universe.

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Ares 1 Rocket - Critical Milestone

NASA's Ares I Rocket Passes Review To Reach Critical Milestone

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- NASA has taken a major step toward building the nation's next generation launch vehicle with Wednesday's successful completion of the Ares I rocket preliminary design review. Starting in 2015, the Ares I rocket will launch the Orion crew exploration vehicle, its crew of four to six astronauts, and small cargo payloads to the International Space Station. The rocket also will be used for missions to explore the moon and beyond in the coming decades.

The preliminary design review is the first such milestone in more than 35 years for a U.S. rocket that will carry astronauts into space. The review was conducted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. It examined the current design for the Ares I launch vehicle to assess that the planned technical approach will meet NASA's requirements for the fully integrated vehicle. That ensures all components of the vehicle and supporting systems are designed to work together.

"This is a critical step for development of the Ares I rocket," said Rick Gilbrech, associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington. "Completing the preliminary design review of the integrated vehicle demonstrates our engineering design and development are on sound footing, and the Ares I design work is taking us another step closer to building America's next mode of space transportation."

The preliminary design review included more than 1,100 reviewers from seven NASA field centers and multiple industry partners. The review is the final step of this design process. Teams representing each major part of the Ares I rocket -- the upper stage engine, first stage and upper stage -- all have conducted similar reviews during the past year.

The preliminary design review is one of a series of reviews that occurs before actual flight hardware can be built. As the review process progresses, more detailed parts of the vehicle design are assessed to ensure the overall system can meet all NASA requirements for safe and reliable flight.

This process also identifies technical and management challenges and addresses ways to reduce potential risks as the project goes forward. "Risk assessment is a very important part of the process," said Steve Cook, manager of the Ares I rocket at Marshall. "It allows us to identify issues that might impact the Ares I rocket. For example, we identified thrust oscillation - vibration in the first stage - as a risk. In response to this issue, we formed an engineering team.

The team conducted detailed analyses and reviewed previous test data, and then recommended options to correct the problem." "We intend to hold a limited follow-up review next summer to fully incorporate the thrust oscillation recommendations into the stacked vehicle design," Cook added. "Identifying risks that can impact the project and resolving them is a necessary and vital part of the development process."

With the completion of this review, each element of the Ares I rocket will move to the detailed design phase. A critical design review will mark the completion of the detailed design phase and allows for a more thorough review of each system element to ensure the vehicle design can achieve requirements of the Ares program.

This week, the J-2X engine will be the first Ares I element to kick off the critical design review process. The engine will power the Ares I upper stage to orbit after separation from the first stage. "We're excited about getting into full system engine tests with the new J-2X engine," Cook said. "This will be one of the safest, most affordable and highest performing rocket engines ever built, and testing is critical as we begin preparation for future flights."

Marshall manages the Ares projects and is responsible for design and development of the Ares I rocket and Ares V heavy cargo launch vehicle.

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston manages the Constellation Program, which includes the Ares I rocket, the Ares V vehicle, the Orion crew capsule and the Altair lunar lander.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for ground and launch operations. The program also includes multiple project element teams at NASA centers and contract organizations around the U.S.

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NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour

NASA'S Space Shuttle Endeavour To Move To Launch Pad Sept. 18

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, Sept. 18, in preparation for shuttle Atlantis' mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Endeavour will stand by in the unlikely event a rescue mission is necessary following Atlantis' launch, which is targeted for Oct. 10. After Endeavour is cleared from its duty as a rescue vehicle, it will move to Launch Pad 39A for the upcoming STS-126 mission to the International Space Station. That flight is targeted for launch Nov. 12.

On Thursday, Endeavour rolled over from Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building. There, Endeavour will be attached to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters to prepare for its move to the pad. The first motion of the shuttle toward the launch pad Sept. 18 is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. EDT.

The fully assembled space shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external tank and twin solid rocket boosters, will be delivered to the pad atop a crawler-transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The process is expected to take approximately seven hours.

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Hurricane Ike Impact Felt In Space

Hurricane Ike Impact Felt In Space

HOUSTON -- Hurricane Ike has delayed the scheduled Friday arrival of a Russian Progress cargo ship at the International Space Station 220 miles above Earth.

The Progress docking was postponed when the space station's control room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston was closed Thursday because of the approaching storm. Control of the space station was handed to flight controllers at backup facilities near Austin, Texas, and Huntsville, Ala. Because the Mission Control Center in Houston is responsible for commanding many of the station's systems, U.S. and Russian officials agreed to delay the docking.

Russian flight controllers will execute a maneuver to place the Progress spacecraft into a safe orbit away from the station until docking, which is planned for Wednesday, Sept. 17. If Johnson's control center is not restored to full capability for docking, one of the backup facilities may be used to command the station's systems.

Station Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Greg Chamitoff are awaiting the arrival of the cargo ship. The spacecraft is carrying more than 2 tons of supplies, including food and fuel.

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NASA Space Shuttle - Heavy Lifting

NASA Heavy Lifting

Most crane operators don’t use words like “ballet” and “pirouette” when describing their work. But, most crane operators don’t perform the delicate task of maneuvering a space shuttle several hundred feet in the air, sometimes with only inches to spare.

Before each mission, the space shuttle designated for that flight is rolled from its processing hangar to the center transfer aisle of the massive Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once there, the process begins to first raise the shuttle to a vertical position, take it up and over a 170-foot high transom, and then carefully lower it into one of two high bays where the external fuel tank and twin solid rocket booster are waiting on one of the mobile launcher platforms.

“It’s a ballet, it really is,” says Del Dewees, a lead mechanical technician and veteran crane operator or ground controller for more than 95 shuttle lifts, “but it’s fun once you’ve done it a couple dozen times.”

The process, which calls for a team of about 16 technicians and normally takes between 20 and 24 hours, requires skill and precision. At the center of the operation are two pairs of crane operators and a ground controller. Once the shuttle is maneuvered into the vertical position using a 175-ton crane, it's disconnected and attached to a 325-ton crane. The operator, located in a tiny cab 467 feet above the floor, begins the lift as the ground controller guides him from below.

While all the focus would seem to be on the crane operators, Dewees says the harder and equally important job is that of the ground controller, who acts as the eyes of the operators.

“Ground control is a lot harder than operating the crane. That’s the hard part, but the fun part too. You’re their eyes.” he says. “Crane operating is one thing, but they’re doing what they’re told to do. But ground control, that’s the guy who really has to coordinate both cranes and they have to do exactly what he tells them, and then he has to fine tune it. You have to pick it up horizontally and you have to rotate it with both cranes. When it comes out great, it looks like there’s nothing to it.”

Dewees assists in certifying the roughly 40 operators trained in the serious work of maneuvering the space hardware high overhead. In addition to the crane operations, the team is responsible for the maintenance and operation of more than 800 pieces of equipment in the cavernous building, including the giant doors, which they must ride to the top for service. Given the scale of the building and the jobs involved, it’s obviously not a place for the faint-hearted.

Certainly a calm and steady hand is required as the crane operator guides the dangling shuttle toward the high bay.

“We take it out in the middle of the bay so we can pirouette it, then bring it back on the mark," says Dewees. “We have to get it perfectly lined up before we lower it down.”

Once inside the high bay, there is little margin for error. “Between the platforms, which are retracted, and the tank, you have interference from the wings, and you have just inches of clearance,” he explains.

With a description like that, many people might think his job sounds stressful, but not Dewees. He grew up near the space center and remembers driving in the truck with his father as they heard the sound of pilings being driven during construction of the Vehicle Assembly Building. He watched as the Mercury astronauts lifted off from Cape Canaveral to pioneer American spaceflight. Even after working around space hardware for almost 30 years, he says simply, “it’s one of those jobs that never gets old.”

Courtesy: Cheryl L. Mansfield
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

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Progress Launched to International Space Station

Progress Launches to Space Station
09.10.08

A new Progress cargo carrier launched to the International Space Station at 3:50 p.m. EDT Wednesday with almost 2.7 tons of fuel, air, water, propellant and other supplies and equipment aboard.

Image above: The ISS Progress 30 cargo craft poised atop its Soyuz rocket on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Roscosmos.

The station's 30th Progress unpiloted spacecraft brings to the orbiting laboratory more than 1,900 pounds of propellant, more than 110 pounds of oxygen, almost 465 pounds of water and 2,865 pounds of dry cargo. Total cargo weight is 5,357 pounds.

P30 replaces the trash-filled P29 which was undocked from the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module on Sept. 1 and deorbited for destruction in the Earth's atmosphere on Sept. 8.


P30 will use the automated Kurs system to dock to the aft port of the station's Zvezda service module. Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov will be at the manual TORU docking system controls, should his intervention become necessary.


Once the cargo is unloaded, P30 will be filled with trash and station discards. It will be undocked from the station and like its predecessors deorbited to burn in the Earth's atmosphere.


The Progress is similar in appearance and some design elements to the Soyuz spacecraft, which brings crew members to the station, serves as a lifeboat while they are there and returns them to Earth. The aft module, the instrumentation and propulsion module, is nearly identical.


But the second of the three Progress sections is a refueling module, and the third, uppermost as the Progress sits on the launch pad, is a cargo module. On the Soyuz, the descent module, where the crew is seated on launch and which returns them to Earth, is the middle module and the third is called the orbital module.


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Currently in Space ISS Expedition 17

STS-124 Astronauts Land in Norwich

The STS-124 Crew (less Ron Garan; visiting schools in Ireland and Greg Chamitoff currently on orbit) visited Norwich. The event held at the John Innes Centre was a great success. There was a business sponsored lunch and an evening buffet.

The astronauts were on fine form; friendly, informative and fun. The evening event comprised a short video presentation (with personal astronaut commentary) followed by a lively Q&A session. The astronauts then attended the buffet and were available for chat, photographs and autographs.

Highly recommended that you try and see them while in the U.K events in Bradford and Leeds follow later this week.

Bye for now
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STS-119 NASA Crew Portrait Released

NASA STS-119 Crew Portrait Released

STS119 --- Attired in training versions of their shuttle launch and entry suits, these seven astronauts take a break from training to pose for the STS-119 crew portrait. From the right (front row) are NASA astronauts Lee Archambault, commander, and Tony Antonelli, pilot. From the left (back row) are NASA astronauts Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, all mission specialists. Wakata is scheduled to join Expedition 18 as flight engineer after launching to the International Space Station on STS-119.

STS-119 Mission Crew Insignia

STS119-S-001 (Sept. 2008) --- The shape of the STS-119/15A patch comes from the shape of a solar array viewed at an angle. The International Space Station (ISS), which is the destination of the mission, is placed accordingly in the center of the patch just below the gold astronaut symbol. The gold solar array of the ISS highlights the main cargo and task of STS-119/15A -- the installation of the S6 truss segment and deployment of S6's solar arrays, the last to be delivered to the ISS. Under the Japanese Kibo module, marked by a red circle, is the name of Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who goes up to the ISS to serve as flight engineer representing JAXA.. The rest of the STS-119/15A crew members are denoted on the outer band of the patch. The 17 white stars on the patch represent, in the crew's words, "the enormous sacrifice the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia have given to our space program." The U.S. flag flowing into the Space Shuttle signifies the support the people of the United States have given our space program over the years, along with pride the U.S. astronauts have in representing the United States on this mission.

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Atlantis Set for Rollout - STS 125

STS-125 Set for Rollout on Thursday

Image above: Inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Atlantis awaits its trip to the launch pad. Photo credit: NASA

Sept. 3, 2008 Space shuttle Atlantis tentatively is scheduled to roll out Thursday from Kennedy Space Center's massive Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A, with its six-hour trek set to begin at 10 a.m. EDT. Managers will first meet at 5:30 a.m. for a weather briefing on the status of Tropical Storm Hanna before making the final decision. If changes in Hanna's path prevent tomorrow’s roll out, the move likely will be planned for Saturday morning.

On Thursday afternoon, Atlantis' crew members are scheduled to arrive at Kennedy for an equipment test Friday in preparation for their mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope has already rewritten the books on astronomy and will remain operational for at least another five years following the upgrades.

Atlantis is targeted to launch Oct. 8 on mission STS-125.

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