The Hubble Space
Telescope
John Anderson
A little history
 Original idea proposed Lynam Spizer in 1946
 Eliminate the effect of Earth’s atmosphere at optical
wavelengths
 Able to observe in infra-red and ultra-violet wavelengths
 The Space Shuttle made the idea feasible
 Budget of $360 million approved by Congress in 1977
 Became a joint project between NASA and ESA
HubbleTelescope Schematic
Hubble’s Primary Mirror
Hubble’s Orbit
Hubble orbits 357 miles above Earth in 97 minutes
 How do you manoeuvre a Space Telescope and keep it
pointing with very high accuracy?
Hubble’s Original Instruments
 Wide field planetary camera (WIFPIC)
 Faint object camera
 High Resolution spectrograph
 High Speed Photometer
 Faint object spectrograph
 After delays the planned launch date was late 1986
 January 1986 Challenger disaster – Shuttle fleet grounded
 Provided extra time for some enhancements to Hubble and
to improve tracking and data handling
 Finally launched in April 1990 aboard Discovery
Deployment of H.S.T. April 1990
Mirror Problem !
M100 Galaxy
COSTAR
Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial
Replacement
Replaced the High Speed Photometer
Servicing Mission 1 - December 1993
Key mission with 5 days EVA
- Fitted COSTAR & WIFPIC 2
- Replaced 2 gyroscopes & R.S.U.
- Fitted new solar arrays
- Upgraded on board computer & data
storage
Servicing Mission 1 - December 1993
Hubble’s Vision Fixed
M100
Before
After
Servicing Missions
No 2 in February 1997
No 3 A in December 1999
No 3 B in March 2002
No 4 scheduled for 2005 but cancelled after
Columbia disaster in 2003
Re-instated and took place in May 2009
Final Servicing Mission in 2009
H.S.T’s Contribution
 An immense contribution to astronomy, cosmology and astrophysics
 Been able to see further and fainter objects than ever before
 Over 9,000 academic papers published using Hubble’s data
and images
 Helped establish more precisely the age of the Universe and
its rate of expansion – the Hubble Constant
H.S.T’s Contribution
December 2012 – discovered what may be the farthest galaxy
At 13.2 billion light years
What will happen to Hubble?
 Scheduled to operate until 2014
 Left to itself its orbit will gradually decay until it burns up in
the atmosphere
 Final “de-orbit” mission
The De-Orbit mission
What comes next ?
 The James Webb Space Telescope