Click on image to see the full size (63K jpg) picture.
On the front: Astronaut F. Story Musgrave, anchored on
the end of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm on the Space
Shuttle Endeavour, prepares to be elevated to the top of the
towering Hubble Space Telescope (MST) to install covers on
magnetometers. Astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman, at bottom, teamed up
with Musgrave to perform final servicing tasks on the
telescope.
The nearly flawless 11-day mission to service Hubble included a
record-breaking five spacewalks in which astronauts performed a
number of tasks designed to improve the telescope and extend its
life.
COSTAR
To compensate for MST's blurred vision, astronauts installed a
phone booth-size device called the Corrective Optics Space
Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR). Using 10 corrective mirrors
ranging in size from a dime to a quarter, COSTAR improved the
quality of data from three instruments: the European Space Agency
(ESA) Faint Object Camera (FOC), the Faint Object Spectrograph
(FOS) and the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS).
WIDE FIELD/PLANETARY CAMERA II
Astronauts also installed a second-generation camera known as
the Wide Field/Planetary II Camera. This camera, already under
construction when Hubble was launched on April 24, 1990, included
its own corrective optics as well as a number of technological
improvements. It replaced the original Wide Field/Planetary Camera
I.
OTHER ENHANCEMENTS
Also replaced were ESA's two solar arrays, which gather
sunlight to power Hubble; a Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE)
unit, which transmits commands to the array wings; two
magnetometers, which measure the spacecraft's relative orientation
to Earth's magnetic field; two gyroscope packages, which help
point HST and track targets; a kit to improve the reliability of
the Goddard High Resolution Spectograph; a 386 co-processor to
augment the telescope's onboard DF-224 computer; and fuse plugs
for the gyros and science instruments.
The STS-61 HST First Servicing Mission was carried out from the
Endeavour following its flight into space December 2, 1993, from
Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Endeavour returned to Earth on
December 13, 1993. The seven-member crew included Richard O.
Covey, commander; Kenneth D. Bowersox, pilot; Musgrave, payload
commander; Hoffman, mission specialist; ESA's Claude Nicollier,
the mission specialist who operated the RMS arm; and Tom Akers and
Kathryn C. Thornton, mission specialists who formed the second
spacewalking team.
Hubble is managed by Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md., for the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters in
Washington, D.C.
For The Classroom
Scientists working in space and deep under the ocean often use remote manipulator arms. These manipulator arms come in different shapes and sizes. Have students construct a manipulator arm to help them understand how one works.
Procedure:
1. Distribute the materials.
2. Cut the poster board into four strips, each 15 centimeters long
by 2 centimeters wide.
3. Make two holes in each strip of poster board. Place one hole in
the center of the strip. Center the other hole about one
centimeter from one end of the strip.
4. Use brass fasteners to assemble the accordion-like model as
shown in the illustration.
5. Students will find that the manipulator does not grasp unless
they cut "teeth" at the end as shown in the illustration.
6. Crumple several pieces of scrap paper into small balls and drop
them onto the floor randomly.
7. Have students take turns using their manipulator arms to
arrange the crumpled paper into a square and then into a circular
pattern. Repeat the exercise using marbles. Students may need to
redesign their manipulator arm to pick up the marbles.
Adapted by permission from The Jason Core Curriculum
Copyright 1993 by the National Science Teachers Association