One of the biggest screw ups in history
- 1946, astronomer Lyman Spitzer wrote a paper called “Astronomical advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory” in which he described why a space telescope is better than a land based one.
- In 1962 U.S. National Academy of sciences recommended development of a space telescope as part of the space program.
- In 1970 NASA created two committees to plan and design for the space telescope.
- In 1978 Congress approved funding of $36 million for the space telescope.
- In 1983 telescope is named after Edwin Hubble. Note, 1983 is the original launch year of the telescope.
- April 1985, new launch date.
- 1986, September. New revised launch date. Project cost now at US$ 1.175 Billion.
- 1990 finally launch of the telescope. From initial estimate of US$400 million, by the time it was launched cost has ballooned to US$4.7 Billion.
That’s the rocket carrying Hubble space Telescope into space. Finally after almost half a century of planning, discussions, design and after spending $4.7 Billion, the greatest telescope mankind has ever created is finally off to orbit.
Scientific community from around the world waits breathlessly for the first pictures from Hubble. Every astronomer around the globe has been waiting for this moment for decades. The brightest, sharpest photo of the cosmos the world has ever seen.
Finally, it came. The first photo from Hubble:
Wait! That’s not a sharp photo. That’s what my 80-year-old grandmother sees while looking at a light. What the hell happened?
Analysis of the images shows that the primary mirror was polished to the wrong shape. It was too flat at the perimeter by about 2200 nanometers. It may look trivial, but the results were catastrophic, which resulted in a series of spherical aberrations.
OR, put in other words, the Hubble telescope had an astigmatism.
For a while it looked like the project was doomed.
- In December 1993, three and a half years after the original launch of Hubble, seven astronauts were launched on a mission to give the telescope new optics and mirror.
- After one of the most complex space operations and 5 space walks, finally the corrective instruments were installed.
One of the astronauts - Musgrave, fixing the telescope.
- On January 13, 1994, first sharp images were received and NASA declared the mission a complete success.
Same galaxy photos taken with the camera fault on left and taken after it was corrected on the right.
Because of Hubble we can see photos like this:
The great Hubble telescope — One of the greatest blunders in modern mankind but also one of our biggest triumphs.
Comments
Post a Comment