Slashdot Mirror
How NASA Prepares To Rescue Hubble, In Photos
Jamie pointed out a fantastic set of photos up at The Boston Globe, illustrating the painstaking preparations underway for the Shuttle mission to rescue the Hubble telescope. "This will be the final servicing mission to Hubble, the 30th flight of the 23-year old Atlantis, and one of the final 10 flights of the Space Shuttle program, which will be retired in 2010." Refreshingly, they've decided to include a many of the behind-the-scenes techies and the equipment they steward, rather than just the launch vehicles and crew.
There are also a series of vodcasts produced by NASA, one of which is "The Last Mission To Hubble". To avoid igniting a platform war, I will decline to point out a piece of software that connects to an online store that carries the NASA vodcasts, but its name is vaguely self-centered and rhymes with "die Zunes".
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
I'm almost not sure I want to know... I mean, machines this old, of such ridiculous complexity and with as many quirks and hacks as we are already aware of? I'm afraid I might faint at the point where it says "And now for the most important step, Chief Engineer Jim applies a fresh square of duct tape to the fuel line regulator control to keep it from jostling which could cause it to fail and the shuttle to explode. Applying a new piece of duct tape is a new procedure mandated after the Columbia disaster."
Joking of course, I do want to know, but I'd bet you anything there are some pretty scary hacks going on behind the scenes. :)
The enemies of Democracy are
One of the big challenges of this repair mission is they're trying to actually perform a repair that the Hubble was never designed to be done. Normally components are swapped out on a module by module basis, and each module was designed to be swapped out in orbit. But this particular service mission they're going to attempt to repair a module without replacing it (because I believe there is no replacement part available). If you look at picture 12, you'll see a plexiglass apparatus designed to keep in 111 screws. That's what needs to be removed and put back in to repair this module (I think they're replacing a power supply inside the module). It all needs to be done in a vacuum, in a cramped unlit space, while wearing a space suit. Not exactly an easy mission.
AccountKiller
Once we complete the Apollo program and launch the shuttle we are supposed to win the game by successfully colonizing Alpha Centauri.
O'well, I guess we'll have to go back to plan 2: world domination by force of arms.
The original plan was to bring it back on a future shuttle mission for inclusion in the Smithsonian (hence the lack of a de-orbit thruster on the Hubble). While return of a satellite has been completed successfully, I think it was only done once or twice, and was ruled out for the Hubble years ago.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
I wouldn't say scary hacks but they do do a lot of craftsman-like work that wasn't originally intended.
For example the foam insulation on the external tank is applied by hand in some areas and the performance is dependent on the workmanship.
The main engines are removed and rebuilt every mission, the original intent was for them to be swapped out every 100 missions. So the work area in the engine bay is very cramped.
And the paperwork. Paperwork is a part of every aerospace maintenance job, but on the STS it goes to a whole other level. Each little step on every job being signed off and countersigned as having been done. That's to make sure that everything that is supposed to get done is verifiable via a paper trail. I wouldn't be surprised if the paperwork makes up a large fraction of the cost of each launch.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
I'm pretty sure the main engines were always intended to be removed and serviced after every launch. The reason they generate a lot of criticism is the service ended up being more labor intensive than expected. To the best of my knowledge, the engines are lasting their intended service life, as opposed to engines like the F-1, which were considered disposable.
Given how much paperwork there is even in my company (including reports and informal communications, it makes up about half of my job) which builds industrial trucks on a production line, I can hardly imagine how many checklists, memos, reports, status meetings, etc, the shuttle program must involve.
Furthermore, the astronauts are involved in major decisions. If they have concerns about a process or a design change, they're given an opportunity to voice those concerns. Most of them are engineers, so they're competant to understand and evaluate what they're being told. When it comes right down to it, if they're not comfortable with hand-applied foam, balky LH2 sensors, or other issues, they have a lot of say in whether or not something is sufficient. The fact that they willingly accept the risk suggests to me they're pretty confident in the engineering team that stands behind them.
"Refreshingly, they've decided to include a many of the behind-the-scenes techies and the equipment they steward, rather than just the launch vehicles and crew."
If you rely on Big Media for your news and information, you deserve what you get. The photographs in the Globe article all come straight from the NASA and are available on the web to anyone who makes the effort to see them. (NASA has been doing this for years now, and has quite a bit of historical photographs available as well.)
Try these websites:
For the interested, here is an online video of a presentation given by ken sembach, the HST project scientist, at a symposium earlier this year. In it, he describe the servicing mission (SM4) in detail, with a particular emphasis on the new instruments being installed (WFC3, COS) and those being repaired (STIS, ACS).
There some cool shots of the astronauts in the massive water tank that simulates zero-g, practicing removing all those screws with the specially designed screw-plate.
http://www.stsci.edu/ts/webcasting/ram/HubbleFellows2008/KenSembach031108Hi.ram
Runtime is 38:51