Harimedia Forum

- By spying on a neighboring galaxy, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a young, globular-like star cluster -- a type of object unknown in our Milky Way Galaxy. The image, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, is online at http://oposite.stsci.edu and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The double cluster NGC 1850 lies in a neighboring satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. (more)

Jpl.nasa.gov

NASA Releases Interactive 3-D Views of Space Station, New Mars Rover
By JPL, May 07, 2009


• Photos: Mars Rover • Global Media Coverage


Pasadena, California, USA. -- NASA released an interactive, 3-D photographic collection of internal and external views of the International Space Station and a model of the next Mars rover on Thursday, May 7.

NASA and Microsoft's Virtual Earth team developed the online experience with hundreds of photographs and Microsoft's photo imaging technology called Photosynth. Using a click-and-drag interface, viewers can zoom in to see details of the space station's modules and solar arrays or zoom out for a more global view of the complex. "Photosynth brings the public closer to our spaceflight equipment and hardware," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"The space station pictures are not simulations or graphic representations but actual images taken recently by astronauts while in orbit. Although you're not flying 220 miles above the Earth at 17,500 miles an hour, it allows you to navigate and view amazing details of the real station as though you were there." The software uses photographs from standard digital cameras to construct a 3-D view that can be navigated and explored online. "This stunning collection of photographs using Microsoft's Photosynth interactive 3-D imaging technology provides people around the world with an exciting new way to explore the space station and learn about NASA's upcoming Mars Science Laboratory mission," said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "This collaboration with Microsoft offers the public the opportunity to participate in future exploration using this innovative technology."

The Mars rover imagery gives viewers an opportunity to preview the hardware of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, currently being assembled for launch to the Red Planet in 2011. "We are making this enhanced viewing experience available from the Mars Science Laboratory project because we're eager for the public to share in the excitement that's building for this mission," said Fuk Li, manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

NASA's Photosynth collection can be viewed at http://www.nasa.gov/photosynth .
The NASA images also can be viewed on Microsoft's Virtual Earth Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth .

While roaming through different components of the station, the public also can join in a scavenger hunt. NASA has a list of items that can be found in the Photosynth collection. These items include a station crew patch, a spacesuit and a bell that is traditionally used to announce the arrival of a visiting spacecraft. Clues to help in the hunt will be posted on NASA's Facebook page and @NASA on Twitter. To access these sites, visit http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate .

NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus took the internal images of the space station during the 129 days she lived aboard the complex. She photographed the station's exterior while aboard the space shuttle Discovery, which flew her back to Earth in March. The rover images were taken of a full-scale model in a Mars-simulation testing area at JPL. Photosynth has multiple potential benefits for NASA. Engineers can use it to examine hardware, and astronauts can use it for space station familiarization training. Photosynth software allows the combination of up to thousands of regular digital photos of a scene to present a detailed 3-D model of a subject, giving viewers the sensation of smoothly gliding around the scene from every angle. A collection can be constructed using photos from a single source or multiple sources. The NASA Photosynth collection also includes shuttle Endeavour preparing for its STS-118 mission in August 2008.

For more information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station
For more information about the Mars Science Laboratory, visit: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

Amazing-space.stsci.edu

Exploring the Universe during IYA


Photos: Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 - News / 2


In 1845, Irish astronomer William Parsons pointed his telescope, the largest of its day, at a mysterious smudge of shimmering light. To his surprise, the glowing smudge had a striking pinwheel shape that no one had ever seen before. This object, now called the Whirlpool Galaxy, is the first galaxy recognized to have a spiral shape.

This majestic spiral galaxy is the featured object for April 2009, a year that celebrates 400 years of astronomy. Named the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), this milestone year is a special time to learn more about the wonders of our universe. The Whirlpool Galaxy is among several celestial wonders that will be highlighted on the Amazing Space Website each month during 2009. Other featured objects include the planet Jupiter in September and the Orion Nebula, a star-forming region, in December.

Amazing Space provides online information and resources for each IYA featured object of the month through our IYA page. For example, in April, use the Fast Facts to learn about the Whirlpool Galaxy and its characteristics. Learn more about our own galaxy by building the Milky Way in the online exploration Galaxies Galore, Games and More. View spectacular odd-ball galaxies in the Star Witness News story, “Close Encounters of the Galactic Kind,” and use the Galaxy Trading Cards to locate constellations in the night sky.

Amazing Space is featuring a wide-variety of other activities during IYA, including an online exploration that explores the history of telescopes and highlights the technology necessary for telescope development over time. The online exploration, called “Telescopes From the Ground Up,” traces the 400 years of telescope development from Galileo’s refractor to NASA’s Great Observatories. To learn more about telescopes, telescope development, and optics, visit Telescopes From the Ground Up. (more)

Preparing for Hubble's Servicing Mission 4 ("SM4")

- Mike Massimino (right) and Mike Good, STS-125 mission specialists, with the home plate from New York City's Shea Stadium, during a break from their training in
the JSC Neutral Buoyancy Lab. The plate will fly with the STS-125 crew aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Credit: NASA





- Astronauts practice in the water to replace Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera during the first servicing mission in 1993 - More related Photos

Astronomynow.com

The Trouble With The Hubble Telescope
By Dr. Emily Baldwin, Oct. 01, 2008

Just weeks before the Hubble repair mission was originally set to commence, a sudden anomaly with the space telescope’s data storage and transmission devices could see the mission pushed back to next year.


• Wikipedia: Hubble Telescope

- The Hubble S.T. currently floats helplessly in space, unable to store or download any data. Image: NASA.


On Saturday, Hubble’s Control Unit/Science Data Formatter Side A malfunctioned and the telescope’s computer automatically issued commands to the payload computer and science instruments to go into safe mode. An attempt to reset the formatter and obtain a dump of the payload computer's memory has so far been unsuccessful.

Although there is a back-up system - Side B - the transition is complex since it requires five other data managing systems to also be switched to their B-sides. The B-sides of these modules were last activated during ground tests in the late 1980's, prior to the space telescope’s launch. If successful, a transition to the redundant Side B should restore full functionality to the science instruments and operations, and reconfiguration attempts will be made this week.

But this still leaves the telescope with a single point of failure, so NASA is investigating the possibility of flying a back-up replacement system, which could be installed during the servicing mission. A new Side A and Side B would therefore give Hubble a second chance should the primary data channels fail again in the future, since there are no plans to visit Hubble again after the imminent servicing mission.


• Web Photos

- Astronauts replace Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera during the first servicing mission in 1993. The third generation camera will replace this in the upcoming fourth and final servicing mission. Image: NASA.


Looking at the break down with a ‘glass half full’ attitude and the telescope couldn’t have chosen a better time to break down. Had the servicing mission gone ahead as planned, the astronauts would not have had the right components to rectify the problem and the mission could have been lost within a year. This way the mission team can prepare the necessary equipment required to fix the problem should the automated reconfiguration to Side B fail. The repair job for this new problem is thought to require just two hours of spacewalk time and could be slotted into the current repair schedule.

NASA officials say that the decision on how next to proceed will be made later next week. Currently, there is a window of opportunity for the Hubble rescue mission between February and May next year, based on other launch schedules. The fourth and final Hubble servicing mission already plans to replace all six of the telescope’s gyroscopes, install new batteries and replacement insulation, as well as install two new instruments: the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, which will improve Hubble’s eyesight and increase the mission to an expected further 10 years.

You can read more about the trials and tribulations of Hubble, as well as a thorough description of the new instruments, in this month’s Astronomy Now magazine.

Howstuffworks.com

How Fixing the Hubble Spacecraft Works
by Jonathan Strickland


• Journey to Hubble - Experience the Mission • NASA: Video

The deployed Hubble telescope, Courtesy STScI and NASA


What Were NASA's Options?

NASA's first option was to not do anything at all. The Hubble maintains its orientation using a complex navigational system. This system in turn relies on six gyroscopes, which help the Hubble maintain its orientation in relation to the Earth. Without proper maintenance, the gyroscopes could fail. After such a failure, NASA would be unable to direct Hubble in the right direction to gather data and images. The Hubble's batteries are also starting to die. If they aren't replaced, the Hubble will lose power and stop functioning. If NASA chose not to act, the Hubble would likely fail before 2009. NASA would be unable to gather the kind of information and images the Hubble was designed to collect until a replacement telescope could launch -- something that isn't scheduled to happen until 2013.

Eventually, the dead telescope would suffer orbit decay. That means the Earth's gravity would gradually pull the telescope closer to the planet. Left alone, the telescope would reenter the Earth's atmosphere and crash to Earth. NASA probably wouldn't let that happen on its own -- it would be too dangerous without knowing where the telescope would land. Instead, NASA would likely send up a mission, either manned or unmanned, to retrieve the telescope safely or crash it into an unpopulated area, such as an ocean. NASA considered just letting the Hubble die, but an enthusiastic outcry from the scientific community caused NASA officials to reconsider. The next option was to send up a manned space mission and use astronauts to manually replace, upgrade and repair the Hubble's systems. After the Columbia disaster, NASA was reluctant to risk the lives of astronauts on Hubble repair jobs.

Even when the space shuttle program started up again in 2005, astronauts were sent only to the International Space Station. That's because the astronauts could take shelter in the station if something went wrong with the shuttle. There they could await rescue. The Hubble telescope doesn't have the facilities or equipment required to keep a shuttle crew alive and safe. The telescope is also too far away from the space station for a shuttle to travel to the telescope, then maneuver to the space station. If something went wrong, the astronauts on the mission would be placed in severe danger. For a few years, NASA was unwilling to support a manned mission to repair the telescope.


• Hubble Photos: Bubble Nebula


The third option was to send up a robot to the Hubble telescope to make repairs. NASA began to look into this option in 2004. A robot would allow NASA to make repairs and upgrades without placing human life in danger. But there was also a downside to using a robot. Robots are extremely expensive to design, develop and produce. NASA had to weigh the costs of developing a robot with the benefits of having the Hubble back online.

NASA had a tough decision to make. The scientific community pleaded on the telescope's behalf. But the risk to human life would always be a factor. With that in mind, NASA set out on a specific course of action. Where they ended up was a completely different story. What did NASA decide to do, and how did the organization's plans change over time? Find out in the next section. Continued...


• Diagram showing datalink to Earth

- After he discovered what galaxies really were, Edwin Hubble became the first person to classify galaxies. Astronomers use his system, called the "Hubble Tuning Fork," even today. First, Hubble divided the galaxies into two general categories: elliptical and spiral galaxies. Elliptical galaxies are shaped like ellipses, and spiral galaxies are shaped like spirals, with arms winding in to a bright center. (more)

• Answers.com: Hubble Space Telescope


• Photos: Hubble Diagram

• BBC News: The Hubble Telescope's main camera shuts down (O1. 2007)

On the Net:
Space Telescopes: www.spacetelescope.org

Info and Photos: www.floridatoday.com

- Hubble Camera Back In Action (Oct. 2008)

A new U.S. water treatment system set to be shipped up to the International Space Station next month will save NASA and its partners an estimated $62 million a year -- money that otherwise would be spent hauling water to the outpost. Now packed away in shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay, the Water Recovery System is deemed key to plans to expand the resident crew size on the station to six from three next spring.

The system collects urine, condensation from the cabin atmosphere and both crew perspiration and respiration. Then, through a a series of chemical treatments and filters, it produces water clean enough to drink. Kelly Humphries, a spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said astronauts and cosmonauts are allotted about one gallon of water per day -- 3.5 liters, or 0.9 gallons, to be exact. The onboard water supply comes from two sources: Continued...

http://homepages.wmich.edu

- Florida Today Hubble News

Space News: http://weblogs.marylandweather.com

Cosmology: Recent Innovations about the Concept of "Universe"

"A major clue to the open vs closed vs flat Universe seems to have been found in recent results from HST and ground "super-telescopes" observations. In fact, some cosmologists believe this assemblage of new facts to be in composite the most important and enlightening discoveries about the Universe since Hubble's observations more than 80 years ago. Some of what is presented in the next group of paragraphs has been extracted from an excellent review in the NOVA series on PBS, this November 2000 program being entitled "The Runaway Universe", from the references cited below, and from a recent book - The Accelerating Universe: Infinite Expansion, the Cosmological Constant, and the Beauty of the Cosmos, by Mario Livio, 2000, J. Wiley and Sons.

The latest volume on this subject is The Extravagant Universe, by Robert Kirschner, Princeton University Press. A quick overview of the accelerating Universe idea is given at this Web site which deals with one of the currently competing concepts, Quintessence, a special form of the Dark Energy that seems to be powering this acceleration. The basic premise behind this so-called runaway Universe is summarized in the above diagram prepared by the Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore, MD: Continued...





Williams Edu. Astronomy Links - What makes Hubble Space Telescope Tick? (More Links)