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Hubble's Engineering Marvel

23:32 recording · AUTO · 3 speakers

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Brief overview

Redundancy, servicing and clever re-engineering have kept Hubble doing frontier science for 35 years.

  1. One gyroscope now runs the whole telescopeA design that needed three gyros at a time flies today on one, with a single spare in reserve.
  2. Redundancy is Hubble's core risk managementThe 2021 science computer failure was survived by switching to a backup side that had sat unused for years.
  3. Automation replaced round-the-clock console watchingLynn once worked 365-day console rotations over 10,000 telemetry points; computers now page the on-call expert.
Executive Summary AI
  • Host Andres Almeida talks with Morgan Van Arsenault, Deputy Mission Operations Manager, and Lynn Basford, Flight Operations Manager, both at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, about how Hubble has overcome technical hurdles.0:43
  • Hubble launched with six gyroscopes for a design that needed three at a time, but early gyros failed quickly and, with servicing missions long over, the team transitioned to a new science mode that runs on a single gyroscope with one working spare.3:07
  • The primary mirror launched out of focus by less than the width of a human hair, fixed on the first servicing mission with COSTAR — effectively a pair of glasses — until later instruments were built with the mirror's real shape in their own optics.5:37
  • In the summer of 2021 the science data computer stopped signalling the main computer, and after several weeks of expert reviews and on-orbit tests the team switched it to a backup side that had not been used in years, restoring normal science operations.11:24
  • Hubble's visible and near-infrared work laid the groundwork for James Webb and for the Roman Space Telescope, launching in late 2026, both of which sit at L2 roughly a million miles away rather than in Hubble's low Earth orbit.16:58
Key Quote
“It spins up just the right amount of momentum needed in order to move us.”
— Lynn Basford2:40
Key Quote
“So now we are operating on orbit with just one gyroscope and that has still been able to do all of the amazing science.”
— Morgan Van Arsenault4:12
Key Quote
“our primary mirror was ever so slightly out of focus. It actually was less than the width of a human hair.”
— Morgan Van Arsenault5:37