Weekly Online Lesson Online Lesson Archive Grade Level: 4-10 Subject: Science

Upgrading Hubble

“Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to rendezvous and grapple the Hubble Space Telescope and then spend five days massively re-outfitting and upgrading the telescope. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.”

This is the message the crew of the space shuttle Columbia heard Saturday evening, along with theme music from "Mission: Impossible."

After chasing the telescope for nearly two days, the shuttle caught up with the aging telescope early Sunday, March 3, in preparation for a multimillion-dollar tune-up. Astronaut Nancy Currie used the shuttle’s 50-foot-long robotic arm to grab the telescope from orbit. After capturing it, Currie moved Hubble down into Columbia’s payload bay and anchored it to a circular work platform.

Starting early Monday morning, two pairs of astronauts are set to perform five spacewalks on five consecutive days to install sophisticated new equipment, including solar wings, a power-control unit, a steering mechanism, a more advanced camera and a cooling system for the disabled infrared camera. The repairs are part of a planned maintenance schedule designed to keep the telescope in service for its full 20-year projected life in orbit.

Hubble already has given scientists an impressive view of the universe since it was launched in 1990. The orbiting observatory has watched a comet break up near the sun, spied the ruins of a stellar explosion 10 billion light years away and investigated the cosmos' rate of expansion.

In this online lesson you will learn about Hubble's upgrades, its history (including its blurry beginnings), and its role in astrophysics research. You will also see some truly awesome images of the cosmos.

Hubblesite

Without a doubt, the coolest Hubble site on the Web is NASA's Hubblesite. It's so crammed full of fun, easy-to-understand science that you could easily spend many hours if not days here. It's easy to get lost, too (not that you'll really mind).

Before looking at the great images, learn a little bit about the telescope by clicking Discoveries and then A Decade of Discovery. Start by reading All About Hubble. When was Hubble launched? What caused its blurred vision for its first three years in orbit? How was the problem corrected in 1993? What upgrades have been done since then? Where is ground control for Hubble located?

For a better view of Hubble click Photos. Look at each image, read the caption (short or longer version), and then click Next for the next picture. If you'd rather see the movie (yes, there is a Hubble movie), click Video and select a player.

Return to Discoveries and click New Views of the Universe. After the Flash intro (skip it if you want) you will see a menu of choices along the top and on the main page. Start by clicking The Telescope. Read About Hubble and Vital Statistics. How large is Hubble's primary mirror? How well can Hubble "see"? How is it powered? How is it maneuvered? How far away is Hubble?

Click Planets on the top navigation bar and explore this section. What gave Jupiter a "black eye"? What kind of ice will you find at the north pole of Mars? How did our solar system first begin to form?

Click Stars at the top and explore this section. How has Hubble contributed to our understanding of the life cycle of stars? What does a star's color tell us about its temperature? What is a nebula?

Click Galaxies and Universe and explore these sections. Why is the outside of a spiral galaxy bluer than the nucleus? Why were galaxy collisions more common in the early universe? How far away are the most distant galaxies we can see?

You've seen a preview of some incredible space images. Now return to the main Hubble page and click Gallery. You can explore the Showcase of the best images, or browse the entire collection. Choose a category and view the photos. Learn more about each one.

Don't leave the site without playing in the Fun & Games section. Start by clicking Where's Hubble now? to see the exact location of the telescope (and for the next few days, the shuttle). Make your own Comet, or play the Comet Tails quiz game. Or check out Galaxies Galore with games and other activities.

SM3B

NASA's designation for the current Hubble servicing mission is SM3B. Visit this site to get some detailed information about the specific repairs, upgrades, and modifications being made during this mission. Click Mission Critical and read the introduction. How much more powerful will Hubble be after this mission? Click Mission Objectives. What are the five primary tasks?

Click Multimedia Gallery at the top. The first page you see is a list of live Webcams. Choose one (such as NASA TV) to watch the live broadcast or even control the Webcam. If you don't have the time or the opportunity to watch the action live, check out the Video Clips. In the Animations section you can view several different animations showing Hubble views or specific onboard functions. Some just play as movies while other are interactive.

Click Mission Updates for the latest news and progress on the Hubble repairs. Is the mission going as planned, or have there been any complications?

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