May 05 2009
Must See Historic TV – The Final Hubble Servicing Mission
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I rarely give out TV alerts (seriously, what is on TV that would warrant and ‘alert’), but this month there is a historic broadcast for one of the most amazing science instruments human kind ever created:
Hubble Live: The Final MissionÂ
Described as the most valuable scientific instrument in the history of mankind, Hubble has drastically increased our knowledge of deep space and the history of the universe. Join us live as we broadcast the launch of the final mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
It will be broadcast on The Science Channel, tentatively at 1:30 PM Eastern, with a replay that evening at 9:00 PM. It will also be repeated on other dates.
You can read more about the preparations for the mission (here) and the scope of the mission (here). The main mission page covers the entire program over its 19 year lifetime (with four more years to go).
The Hubble Space Telescope has explored farther and made more discoveries than any instrument or human endeavor to date. It will take decades, maybe centuries, to unravel all its data. I was fortunate to have taken my twin daughters to work last month and they got to see the Hubble repair mock up – even I forgot how big the thing is (check the astronaut in the picture above from a previous servicing mission – click to enlarge).
Hubble began its life as complete NASA failure. With a major flaw in its mirror not detected until it was on orbit and supposedly too late to do anything about, inside NASA Hubble rivals Apollo 13 (but does not exceed it) for engineering innovation and genius. A few people realized they could do an on orbit vision correction and history was remade. From total failure to the most successful instrument of all time. It truly is a Cinderella story.
The awe inspiring the Hubble Image Gallery is always a worthwhile place to personally explore the universe. It is something everyone could spend an hour a week doing and probably never hit the end. But do not weep for Hubble, her replacement is being built as we speak and will be nothing short of amazing.
I leave you with a few of my favorite Hubble discovery, a star nursery where solar systems are being hatched. Feel free to click and enlarge them.
My first or second year in seminary (1989 – 90 or something) was the year that the Hubble was launched. We had a guy in our dorm who worked at NASA on the Hubble. I do not remember the details but it was fascinating to hear him talk about all the innovation that went into getting it up working. He still had friends in NASA that he was conversing with giving him a behind the scenes look at what was transpiring. It was as if we were sitting in mission control listening real time. Again my memory fails me but were there not problems with even getting it out of the shuttle and functioning?
If there were human lives involved as there were in Apollo 13 it would have been just as gripping.
Are the colors in the pics real or are they added for enhancement?
I also understand that the technology for the Hubble is 70ish or something and it should have been up earlier but the Challenger disaster delayed its launch. Cannot not wait to see what the new one can to with new technology.
AJ, in 2000, (I think it was) we had a speaker at a Cornell function (i did not go to Cornell-my employer hosted the event) that ran the Hubbell Telescope. His talk was UNBELIEVABLE for us non-scientific citizens. He showed pictures of stars exploding, of “milky ways” and much more. I will never forget it. He was actually pointing out all the patterns that exist and are repeated all through the Creation. I asked him if he thought the past, present and future were all happening at the same time…he said, yes, absolutely.