The Hubble Space Telescope: A Hard-Working Celebrity

The Hubble Space Telescope was put into earth's orbit by space shuttle Discovery in 1990 and has been in almost continuous operation (except for the downtime during repairs) since then. It is the largest telescope in space and will remain the only such device in space observing the universe in the visible light spectrum even after the James Webb Space Telescope is launched in 2013; the JWST will operate in the infrared part of the spectrum (Moskowitz, 2008).

The onboard computer controlling HST operations was state-of-the-art when it was initially designed by IBM in the 1970s and built by Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation in the 1980s. It stores the received data, breaks it down into packets, and is capable of sending these packets back to Earth at a rate of up to 1 MB/sec (Gaudin, 2008). The rigors of operating in space, however, have caused breakdowns serious enough to warrant the complete replacement of the existing computer and the installation of redundant systems as well (Gaudin, 2008). While expensive in terms of both time and resources, such a replacement is likely to increase the operational life of the HST by up to another ten years.

While there is some sentiment, in light of current malfunctions, that it is time to retire the HST and use its maintenance funds toward designing a completely new space telescope, the current prevailing view remains that the HST has plenty of operational life left in it particularly because its mirror is undamaged and is in good condition even after 18 years of service (Moskowitz, 2008). Together with its maintenance, the HST has cost approximately $10 billion up to date; the JWST will have cost almost half as much to design, build, launch, and activate (Moskowitz, 2008). Considering the amount and richness of data the HST has delivered to increase human knowledge of the nature of the universe, its origins, and its future development, its price tag should be considered a bargain.

In addition to its purely scientific value, the HST is somewhat of a celebrity back on Earth. With IMAX technology becoming more mainstream, the images from the HST are being made into feature presentations aimed at both education and entertainment. Also, the next Atlantis space shuttle mission will take with it an IMAX 3-D camera, which will be operational throughout the flight and the scheduled repair period of the telescope (Dean, 2008). In essence, the HST will be the star of the new IMAX feature once Atlantis returns.

References

Dean, J. (2008). IMAX hitching ride to Hubble. Florida Today (Oct. 6). Online at http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081006/NEWS02/810060330/1006/NEWS01

Gaudin, S. (2008). Computer failure hobbles NASA's Hubble telescope. Computerworld (Oct. 6). Online at http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=servers&articleId=327612&taxonomyId=68&intsrc=kc_top

Moskowitz, C. (2008). Is the broken Hubble Telescope worth saving? USA Today (Oct. 1). Online at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-10-01-hubble_N.htm