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Can Hubble be serviced again?
That being said, there are no plans for a new service mission. If there’s a catastrophic failure that takes Hubble entirely offline, it’s hard to see NASA greenlighting a repair mission for an observatory that’s over three decades old.
How is the Hubble Space Telescope serviced?
The Hubble Space Telescope was reborn with Servicing Mission 4 (SM4). To prolong Hubble’s life, new batteries, new gyroscopes, a new science computer, a refurbished Fine Guidance Sensor and new insulation on three electronics bays were also installed during the mission’s five spacewalks.
What was the problem with the Hubble Space Telescope that required a service mission back to the telescope for correction?
Servicing Mission 1 (STS-61) Because Hubble’s primary mirror was incorrectly shaped, the telescope could not focus all the light from an object to a single sharp point. Instead, it saw a fuzzy halo around objects it observed.
How will Webb be better than the Hubble Space Telescope?
Webb will have significantly larger field of view than the NICMOS camera on Hubble (covering more than ~15 times the area) and significantly better spatial resolution than is available with the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.
How often is the Hubble Space Telescope serviced?
The fifth mission was initially canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster (2003), but NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin approved the fifth servicing mission which was completed in 2009. The telescope completed 30 years in operation in April 2020 and could last until 2030–2040.
What did we do about the Hubble Space Telescope flaw?
The result was a mirror with an aberration one-50th the thickness of a human hair, in the grinding of the mirror. Replacing the mirror was not practical, so the best solution was to build replacement instruments that fixed the flaw much the same way a pair of glasses correct the vision of a near-sighted person.
How far above Earth is Hubble?
about 547 kilometers
Hubble orbits about 547 kilometers (340 miles) above Earth. It is the length of a large school bus and weighs as much as two adult elephants. Hubble travels about 5 miles per second: That is like traveling from the eastern coast of the United States to the western coast in 10 minutes. Hubble is solar-powered.