1999 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| HST 3RD SERVICING MISSION | G99-082 | 11/5/99 | 00:23:47 | NASA officials decided to move up part of the servicing mission that had been scheduled for June 2000 after three of the telescope's six gyroscopes failed. Having fewer than three working gyroscopes would preclude science observations, although the telescope would remain safely in orbit until a servicing crew arrived. In addition to replacing all six gyroscopes on the November flight, the crew will replace a guidance sensor and the spacecraft's computer. The new computer will reduce the burden of flight software maintenance and significantly lower costs. A voltage/temperature kit will be installed to protect spacecraft batteries from overcharging and overheating when the spacecraft goes into safe mode. A new transmitter will replace a failed spare currently aboard the spacecraft, and a spare missions will replace telescope insulation that has degraded. The insulation is necessary to control internal temperatures. |
TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): ANIMATION OF HUBBLE'S GYROSCOPES - (two animation) - Astronauts will replace all six of the Telescope's gyroscopes during STS-103. Currently, three of Hubble's six gyros are not working, leaving only the minimum number needed to continue its mission. The gyroscopes are needed for pointing the telescope. The pointing system is comprised of reaction wheels that actually move the telescope, gyros that report its position, star trackers that provide reference points, and the onboard computer that controls the pointing process. Based on nearly one and a half years of intensive chemical, mechanical and electrical investigations, the HST team believes that the thin wires are being corroded by the fluid in which they are immersed and ultimately this corrosion causes them to break.
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| ITEM (2): NEW THERMAL BLANKET LAYER ANIMATION - During the mission astronauts will cover Hubble's electronic bay doors with 7 permanent coated-stainless steel foil sheets called the New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL). The crew will also carry 7 rolls of special fabric, called the Shell/Shield Replacement Fabric (SSRF) which will be installed on Hubble's forward shell and light shield if time is available. The NOBL covers and SSRF pieces are designed to protect Hubble's external blankets and prevent its insulation from further degradation. Blankets are attached with "bottle-stopper" fasteners and then are unrolled like "wallpaper." This multi-layer insulation protects the Telescope from the severe and rapid temperature changes as it moves through its 90-minute orbit from very hot sun to very cold night.
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| ITEM (3): TECHNICIANS "QUILT" SSRF B-ROLL - B-roll of technicians at the Goddard Space Flight Center "quilting" the Shell/Shield Replacement Fabric (SSRF). The fabric pieces are stored in rolls for their trip to orbit. The fabric is composed of flexible, aluminized Teflon with rip-stop material bonded to the back side. Seven pieces up to 22 feet (7 meters) long will cover 80% of the sun-side light shield and forward shell. This special fabric was designed and tested to ensure that it can withstand exposure to charged particles, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, and thermal cycling for at least ten years.
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| ITEM (4): STS-103 CLEANROOM B-ROLL - Astronauts train for the Hubble Space Telescope Third Servicing Mission in the cleanroom at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The seven-member crew will rendezvous with the Telescope, capture it with the Space Shuttle Discovery's robotic arm and dock it in the Shuttle bay. Working in teams of two, four astronauts will outfit the Hubble with new equipment, including six gyroscopes, a Fine Guidance Sensor, Solid State Recorder, new Main Computer, New Outer Blanket Layers (NOBL), and a transmitter. The astronauts will take more than 150 crew aids and tools on this service call. (Footage includes astronauts working with gyroscopes and applying thermal blankets to a full-sized mock-up of the Hubble Space Telescope.)
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| ITEM (5): ACTIVITY IN THE STOCC - Ground controllers work around the clock in the Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Here, commands are sent to the Telescope to direct the observation of astronomical targets all across the sky, operators monitor the Telescope's health, safety, control flight operations and science activities.
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| ITEM (6): HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE ANIMATION - "Glamour" shot of the telescope in space.
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| ITEM (7): THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM ANIMATION - Animations of the electromagnetic spectrum, the communication path, and the Hubble Telescope.
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| ITEM (8): HUBBLE TRACKING/SATELLITE RELAY ANIMATIONS : a) Animation of HST Communication - Communications through the Tracking & Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), White Sands, NM, and DOMSAT, to the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
b) TDRSS Animation - Animation of the Tracking & Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Communications Satellite depicting the data flow from TDRS to Earth, equivalent to a set of encyclopedias every second.
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| ITEM (9): INTERVIEW EXCERPTS WITH DR. DAVID LECKRONE, SENIOR PROJECT SCIENTIST, HST
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| ITEM (10): INTERVIEW EXCERPTS WITH DR. JOHN CAMPBELL, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, HST
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| ITEM (11): EAGLE NEBULA - Hubble reveals a stellar nursery in the gaseous pillars of the Eagle Nebula.
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| ITEM (12): HUBBLE DEEP FIELD - Hubble looks at billions of years into the past for the deepest image into space ever taken.
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| ITEM (13): M2-9 "TWINJET NEBULA" - A pair of collimated jets shoot out in opposite directions at high speeds. The jets are powered by material from the outer layers of a close paoir of stars at the center. Exquisite cores of gas are shed from these stars in the later stages of their lives.
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| ITEM (14): STAR FORMATION IN THE TRIFID NEBULA - Spectacular new Hubble Space Telescope images of the Trifid Nebula show a region of ongoing star formation as it is being torn apart by radiation from the star that powers the nebula. A stellar jet streaming outward from the walls of the nebula is a sure sign that the star at its source is still growing. But the jet's days-and the star's time in its womb-are numbered. Within the next 20,000 years or so the stars natal environment will be destroyed by the radiation from its powerful neighbor.
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| ITEM (15): HST SECOND SERVICING MISSION - Every few years, the telescope is visited by a Space Shuttle to allow astronauts to switch old instruments for new. During HST's second servicing mission, the seven-member crew conducted spacewalks to remove two older instruments and install two new astronomy instruments, as well as other servicing tasks. The two older instruments that were replaced were the Goddard High Resolution Spectrometer and the Faint Object Spectrograph. Replacing these instruments were the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). (Highlights of the mission)
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| ITEM (16): HST FIRST SERVICING MISSION - In June, 1990 scientists and engineers discovered that the HST's primary mirror was flawed. Images of starlight were spread out in a fuzzy halo rather than being focused into a sharp point. This defect was caused by a manufacturing error in the polishing of the primary mirror which rendered it too flat. The HST was designed to allow new instruments to be easily installed as old ones become obsolete. This was demonstrated during the first servicing mission in December 1993, when, during an 11-day mission that included a record five EVAs, astronauts successfully installed a new camera called the Wide Field/Planetary Camera II (WF/PC-II) which had its corrective optics built right in, and a special instrument, called the COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement) that would properly refocus light from the flawed main mirror to the other instruments. (Highlights of the mission.)
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| ITEM (17): STS-31 HUBBLE LAUNCH MISSION - Launched on April 24, 1990, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was designed to be the most powerful astronomical observatory ever built. HST far surpasses the capabilities of ground-based optical telescopes. The keys to Hubble's power are its operation in space, far above the interference of the Earth's atmosphere, and to the unique instruments it carries as it orbits the planet. In addition, HST was the first observatory designed for extensive on-orbit maintenance and refurbishment. (Includes launch & HST deployment)
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