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Largest space telescopes. Telescopes in space Why are telescopes launched in space?

Where to see the stars?

A completely reasonable question: why place telescopes in space? Everything is very simple - you can see better from Space. Today, to study the Universe, we need telescopes with a resolution that is impossible to obtain on Earth. This is why telescopes are launched into space.

Different types of vision

All these devices have different “vision”. Some types of telescopes study space objects in the infrared and ultraviolet range, others in the X-ray range. This is the reason for the creation of ever more advanced space systems for the deep study of the Universe.

Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
The Hubble telescope is an entire space observatory in low-Earth orbit. NASA and the European Space Agency worked on its creation. The telescope was launched into orbit in 1990 and today is the largest optical device observing in the near-infrared and ultraviolet range.

During its work in orbit, Hubble sent to Earth more than 700 thousand images of 22 thousand different celestial objects - planets, stars, galaxies, nebulae. Thousands of astronomers used it to observe processes occurring in the Universe. Thus, with the help of Hubble, many protoplanetary formations around stars were discovered, unique photographs of phenomena such as auroras on Jupiter, Saturn and other planets were obtained, and a lot of other invaluable information.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

Chandra X-ray Observatory
The Chandra Space Telescope was launched into space on July 23, 1999. Its main task is to observe X-rays emanating from very high-energy regions of space. Such research is of great importance for understanding the evolution of the Universe, as well as studying the nature of dark energy - one of the biggest mysteries of modern science. To date, dozens of devices conducting research in the X-ray range have been launched into space, but, nevertheless, Chandra remains the most powerful and effective in this area.

Spitzer The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched by NASA on August 25, 2003. Its task is to observe the Cosmos in the infrared range, in which you can see cooling stars and giant molecular clouds. The Earth's atmosphere absorbs infrared radiation, making such space objects almost impossible to observe from Earth.

Kepler The Kepler telescope was launched by NASA on March 6, 2009. Its special purpose is to search for exoplanets. The telescope's mission is to monitor the brightness of more than 100 thousand stars for 3.5 years, during which it must determine the number of Earth-like planets located at a distance suitable for the emergence of life from their suns. Compose a detailed description of these planets and the shapes of their orbits, study the properties of stars that have planetary systems, and much more. To date, Kepler has already identified five star systems and hundreds of new planets, 140 of which have characteristics similar to Earth.

James Webb Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
It is assumed that when Hubble reaches the end of its life, the JWST space telescope will take its place. It will be equipped with a huge mirror with a diameter of 6.5 m. Its goal is to detect the first stars and galaxies that appeared as a result of the Big Bang.
And it’s even difficult to imagine what he will see in Space and how it will affect our lives.

“We started an independent flight. There are strong contacts with measuring points in Medvezhye Lakes and Ussuriysk. The solar panels opened, found the Sun, took a stabilized position and have a positive energy balance”... This is how the head of the NPO named after NGO began communicating with the press. Lavochkin Viktor Hartov on July 18, shortly after the launch of RadioAstron. After this, it became clear: the launch was successful, and for many astronomy lovers this joyful news almost brought tears to their eyes.

For almost a quarter of a century, more than twenty years, Russia has not launched astronomical instruments into space!

The history of Radioastron goes back half a century. The idea of launching a radio telescope into space belongs to the outstanding radio astronomer, student of I. S. Shklovsky, Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev. At first, he proposed creating a huge inflatable antenna, but by the time the project received official status (this happened in the 80s), the size of the telescope had decreased significantly. In the 90s, the project was actually frozen; in the last decade, despite increased funding, the launch was repeatedly postponed. And now Radioastron is in orbit!

However, it is too early to rejoice, because today, July 22, the radio telescope antenna should open. RadioAstron will then observe the Moon for calibration. Then the attitude control systems will be calibrated. This will be done by measuring one of the bright sources of radio waves. In general, the device will operate for two to three months in test mode. And only then will he begin scientific observations.

Here the question may arise: why launch a radio telescope into space, since this will not give the instrument any advantages over its ground-based counterparts, as, for example, is the case with optical telescopes? The answer is simple: it's all in the base. Radioastron is a telescope designed to work in conjunction with ground-based radio telescopes. Together they will create a super-long base, about 30 times larger than those currently existing, limited by the diameter of the Earth. This means that with the help of RadioAstron we will be able to explore the Universe with an angular resolution of one millionth of an arcsecond!

This will make it possible to study in detail the nature of the energy source in the nuclei of active galaxies, study the evolution of compact extragalactic sources of radio emission, obtain new data on pulsars, microquasars and radio stars, and finally, make a significant contribution to fundamental astrometry. In a word, even today, half a century after the first idea of a space radio telescope, Radioastron is a unique instrument that had no analogues in the world.

What a blessing that the team did not run away in the turbulent 90s and continued to work in the difficult 2000s. And how great it is that Radioastron was launched after all! Now - the next step. Let's spit three times and wait for the antenna to open. And then you look, and the first scientific results will arrive. We really need them, and especially the younger generation of our scientists.

July 18, 2011. Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Zenit rocket with the Fregat upper stage launches the Spektr-R or Radioastron radio telescope into orbit

In connection with the successful launch, academician N. S. Kardashev accepts congratulations. Photo: Vladimir A. Samodurov

An interesting article about the launch of Radioastron was published in the newspaper

There is such a mechanism - a telescope. What is it for? What functions does it perform? What does it help with?

general information

Stargazing has been a fascinating activity since ancient times. It was not only a pleasant, but also a useful pastime. Initially, man could only observe the stars with his own eyes. In such cases, the stars were just points in the firmament. But in the seventeenth century the telescope was invented. What was it needed for and why is it used now? In clear weather, you can use it to observe thousands of stars, carefully examine the moon, or simply observe the depths of space. But let’s say a person is interested in astronomy. The telescope will help him observe tens, hundreds of thousands or even millions of stars. In this case, it all depends on the power of the device used. Thus, amateur telescopes provide magnification of several hundred times. If we talk about scientific instruments, they can see thousands and millions of times better than us.

Types of telescopes

Conventionally, two groups can be distinguished:

Amateur devices. This includes telescopes whose magnification power is a maximum of several hundred times. Although there are also relatively weak devices. So, for observing the sky, you can even buy budget models with a hundredfold magnification. If you want to buy yourself such a device, then know about the telescope - the price for them starts from 5 thousand rubles. Therefore, almost everyone can afford to study astronomy.
Professional scientific instruments. There is a division into two subgroups: optical and radar telescopes. Alas, the former have a certain, rather modest reserve of capabilities. In addition, when the threshold of 250x magnification is reached, the image quality begins to drop sharply due to the atmosphere. An example is the famous Hubble telescope. It can transmit clear images with a magnification of 5 thousand times. If we neglect quality, then it can improve visibility by 24,000! But the real miracle is the radar telescope. What is it for? Scientists use it to observe the Galaxy and even the Universe, learning about new stars, constellations, nebulae and other

What does a telescope give a person?

It is a ticket to a truly fantastic world of uncharted stellar depths. Even budget amateur telescopes will allow you to make scientific discoveries (even if they were previously made by one of the professional astronomers). Although an ordinary person can do a lot. So, was the reader aware that most comets were discovered by amateurs, not professionals? Some people make a discovery not just once, but many times, naming the found objects whatever they want. But even if nothing new was found, then every person with a telescope can feel much closer to the depths of the Universe. With its help you can admire the beauties of other planets in the solar system.

If we talk about our satellite, then it will be possible to carefully examine the topography of its surface, which will be more vibrant, voluminous and detailed. In addition to the Moon, you will also be able to admire Saturn, the polar cap of Mars, dreaming about how apple trees will grow on it, the beautiful Venus and Mercury scorched by the Sun. This is truly an amazing sight! With a more or less powerful instrument, it will be possible to observe variable and double massive fireballs, nebulae and even nearby galaxies. True, to detect the latter you will still need certain skills. Therefore, you will need to buy not only telescopes, but also educational literature.

The telescope's faithful assistant

In addition to this device, its owner will find another space exploration tool useful - a star map. This is a reliable and reliable cheat sheet that helps and facilitates the search for the desired objects. Previously, paper maps were used for this. But now they have been successfully replaced by electronic options. They are much more convenient to use than printed cards. Moreover, this area is actively developing, so even a virtual planetarium can provide significant assistance to the owner of a telescope. Thanks to them, the required image will be quickly presented upon the first request. Among the additional features of such software is even providing any supporting information that may be useful.

So we figured out what a telescope is, what it is needed for and what capabilities it provides.

How did telescopes come about?

The first telescope appeared at the beginning of the 17th century: several inventors simultaneously invented telescopes. These tubes were based on the properties of a convex lens (or, as it is also called, a concave mirror), acting as a lens in the tube: the lens brings light rays into focus, and an enlarged image is obtained, which can be viewed through an eyepiece located at the other end of the tube. An important date for telescopes is January 7, 1610; then the Italian Galileo Galilei first pointed a telescope into the sky - and that’s how he turned it into a telescope. Galileo's telescope was very small, a little over a meter in length, and the lens diameter was 53 mm. Since then, telescopes have continually increased in size. Truly large telescopes located in observatories began to be built in the 20th century. The largest optical telescope today is the Grand Canary Telescope, in the observatory on the Canary Islands, whose lens diameter is as much as 10 m.

Are all telescopes the same?

No. The main type of telescopes is optical, they use either a lens, a concave mirror or a series of mirrors, or a mirror and a lens together. All of these telescopes work with visible light - that is, they look at planets, stars and galaxies in much the same way as a very sharp human eye would look at them. All objects in the world have radiation, and visible light is only a small fraction of the spectrum of these radiations. Looking at space only through it is even worse than seeing the world around in black and white; this way we lose a lot of information. Therefore, there are telescopes that operate on different principles: for example, radio telescopes that catch radio waves, or telescopes that catch gamma rays - they are used to observe the hottest objects in space. There are also ultraviolet and infrared telescopes, they are well suited for discovering new planets outside the solar system: in the visible light of bright stars it is impossible to see tiny planets orbiting around them, but in ultraviolet and infrared light this is much easier.

Why do we need telescopes at all?

Good question! I should have asked it earlier. We send devices into space and even to other planets, collect information on them, but for the most part, astronomy is a unique science because it studies objects to which it does not have direct access. A telescope is the best tool to get information about space. He sees waves that are inaccessible to the human eye, the smallest details, and also records his observations - then with the help of these records you can notice changes in the sky.

Thanks to modern telescopes, we have a good understanding of stars, planets and galaxies and can even detect hypothetical particles and waves previously unknown to science: for example, dark matter (these are the mysterious particles that make up 73% of the Universe) or gravitational waves (they are trying to detect them using the LIGO observatory, which consists of two observatories that are located at a distance of 3000 km from each other). For these purposes, it is best to treat telescopes as with all other devices - send them into space.

Why send telescopes into space?

The surface of the Earth is not the best place for observing space. Our planet creates a lot of interference. First, the air in a planet's atmosphere acts like a lens: it bends light from celestial objects in random, unpredictable ways—and distorts the way we see them. In addition, the atmosphere absorbs many types of radiation: for example, infrared and ultraviolet waves. To get around this interference, telescopes are sent into space. True, this is very expensive, so this is rarely done: throughout history, we have sent about 100 telescopes of different sizes into space - in fact, this is not enough, even large optical telescopes on Earth are several times larger. The most famous space telescope is Hubble, and the James Webb Telescope, due to launch in 2018, will be something of a successor.

How expensive is it?

A powerful space telescope is very expensive. Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of Hubble, the world's most famous space telescope. Over the entire period, about $10 billion was allocated for it; part of this money is for repairs, because Hubble had to be repaired regularly (they stopped doing this in 2009, but the telescope is still working). Shortly after the telescope was launched, a stupid thing happened: the first images it took were of much worse quality than expected. It turned out that due to a tiny error in the calculations, the Hubble mirror was not level enough, and an entire team of astronauts had to be sent to fix it. It cost about $8 million. The price of the James Webb telescope may change and will likely increase closer to launch, but so far it's about $8 billion - and it's worth every penny.

What's special
at the James Webb Telescope?

It will be the most impressive telescope in human history. The project was conceived back in the mid-90s, and now it is finally approaching its final stage. The telescope will fly 1.5 million km from the Earth and enter orbit around the Sun, or rather to the second Lagrange point from the Sun and Earth - this is the place where the gravitational forces of two objects are balanced, and therefore the third object (in this case, a telescope) may remain motionless. The James Webb telescope is too big to fit into a rocket, so it will fly folded and open up in space like a transforming flower; look at this video to understand how this will happen.

It will then be able to look further than any telescope in history: 13 billion light-years from Earth. Since light, as you might guess, travels at the speed of light, the objects we see are in the past. Roughly speaking, when you look at a star through a telescope, you see it as it looked tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on years ago. Therefore, the James Webb Telescope will see the first stars and galaxies as they were after the Big Bang. This is very important: we will better understand how galaxies were formed, stars and planetary systems appeared, and we will be able to better understand the origin of life. Perhaps the James Webb Telescope will even help us discover extraterrestrial life. There is one thing: during the mission, a lot of things can go wrong, and since the telescope will be very far from Earth, it will be impossible to send it to fix it, as was the case with Hubble.

What is the practical meaning of all this?

This is a question that is often asked about astronomy, especially given how much money is spent on it. There are two answers to this: firstly, not everything, especially science, should have a clear practical meaning. Astronomy and telescopes help us better understand the place of humanity in the Universe and the structure of the world in general. Secondly, astronomy still has practical benefits. Astronomy is directly related to physics: by understanding astronomy, we understand physics much better, because there are physical phenomena that cannot be observed on Earth. For example, if astronomers prove the existence of dark matter, this will greatly affect physics. In addition, many technologies invented for space and astronomy are used in everyday life: consider satellites, which are now used for everything from television to GPS navigation. Finally, astronomy will be very important in the future: to survive, humanity will need to extract energy from the Sun and minerals from asteroids, settle on other planets and, possibly, communicate with alien civilizations - all this will be impossible if we do not develop astronomy and telescopes now .

A canonical photo of the telescope taken during its last maintenance mission in 2009.

25 years ago, on April 24, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery set off from Cape Canaveral on its tenth flight, carrying in its transport compartment an unusual cargo that would bring glory to NASA and become a catalyst for the development of many areas of astronomy. Thus began the 25-year mission of the Hubble Space Telescope, perhaps the most famous astronomical instrument in the world.

The next day, April 25, 1990, the cargo hatch doors opened and a special manipulator lifted the telescope out of the compartment. Hubble began its journey at an altitude of 612 km above the Earth. The process of launching the device was filmed on several IMAX cameras, and, together with one of the later repair missions, was included in the film Destiny in Space (1994). The telescope came to the attention of IMAX filmmakers several more times, becoming the hero of the films Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time (2004) and Hubble 3D (2010). However, popular science cinema is pleasant, but still a by-product of the work of the orbital observatory.

Why are space telescopes needed?

The main problem of optical astronomy is interference introduced by the Earth's atmosphere. Large telescopes have long been built high in the mountains, far from large cities and industrial centers. The remoteness partially solves the problem of smog, both real and light (illumination of the night sky by artificial light sources). The location at a high altitude makes it possible to reduce the influence of atmospheric turbulence, which limits the resolution of telescopes, and to increase the number of nights suitable for observation.

In addition to the inconveniences already mentioned, the transparency of the earth's atmosphere in the ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma ranges leaves much to be desired. Similar problems are observed in the infrared spectrum. Another obstacle in the way of ground-based observers is Rayleigh scattering, the same thing that explains the blue color of the sky. Because of this phenomenon, the spectrum of observed objects is distorted, shifting to red.

Hubble in the cargo hold of the Discovery shuttle. View from one of the IMAX cameras.

But still, the main problem is the heterogeneity of the earth’s atmosphere, the presence in it of areas with different densities, air speeds, etc. It is these phenomena that lead to the well-known twinkling of stars, visible to the naked eye. With multi-meter optics of large telescopes, the problem only gets worse. As a result, the resolution of ground-based optical instruments, regardless of the size of the mirror and the telescope aperture, is limited to about 1 arcsecond.

Taking the telescope into space allows you to avoid all these problems and increase the resolution by an order of magnitude. For example, the theoretical resolution of the Hubble telescope with a mirror diameter of 2.4 m is 0.05 arc seconds, the real one is 0.1 seconds.

Hubble Project. Start

For the first time, scientists started talking about the positive effect of transferring astronomical instruments beyond the Earth’s atmosphere long before the advent of the space age, back in the 30s of the last century. One of the enthusiasts of creating extraterrestrial observatories was astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer. Thus, in an article in 1946, he substantiated the main advantages of space telescopes, and in 1962 he published a report recommending that the US National Academy of Sciences include the development of such a device in the space program. Quite expectedly, in 1965, Spitzer became the head of the committee that determined the range of scientific tasks for such a large space telescope. Later, the Spitzer Space Telescope (SIRTF) infrared space telescope, launched in 2003, with an 85-centimeter main mirror, was named after the scientist.

Spitzer infrared telescope.

The first extraterrestrial observatory was the Orbiting Solar Observatory 1 (OSO 1), launched in 1962, just 5 years after the start of the space age, to study the sun. In total, under the OSO program from 1962 to 1975. 8 devices were created. And in 1966, in parallel with it, another program was launched - the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), within the framework of which in 1966-1972. Four orbiting ultraviolet and X-ray telescopes were launched. It was the success of the OAO missions that became the starting point for the creation of a large space telescope, which at first was simply called the Large Orbiting Telescope or Large Space Telescope. The device received the name Hubble in honor of the American astronomer and cosmologist Edwin Hubble only in 1983.

Initially, it was planned to build a telescope with a 3-meter main mirror and deliver it into orbit already in 1979. Moreover, the observatory was immediately developed so that the telescope could be serviced directly in space, and here the Space Shuttle program, which was developing in parallel, came in very handy, the first flight of which took place April 12, 1981 Let's face it, the modular design was a brilliant solution - the shuttles flew to the telescope five times to repair and upgrade the equipment.

And then the search for money began. Congress either refused funding or allocated funds again. NASA and the scientific community launched an unprecedented nationwide lobbying program for the Large Space Telescope project, which included mass mailing of letters (then paper) to legislators, personal meetings of scientists with congressmen and senators, etc. Finally, in 1978, Congress allocated the first $36 million, plus the European Space Community (ESA) agreed to bear part of the costs. Design of the observatory began, and 1983 was set as the new launch date.

Mirror for the hero

The most important part of an optical telescope is the mirror. The mirror of a space telescope had special requirements due to its higher resolution than its terrestrial counterparts. Work on the main Hubble mirror with a diameter of 2.4 m began in 1979, and Perkin-Elmer was chosen as the contractor. As subsequent events showed, this was a fatal mistake.

Ultra-low coefficient of thermal expansion glass from Corning was used as a preform. Yes, the same one you know from the Gorilla Glass that protects the screens of your smartphones. The precision of polishing, for which the newfangled CNC machines were first used, had to be 1/65 of the wavelength of red light, or 10 nm. Then the mirror had to be coated with a 65 nm layer of aluminum and a protective layer of magnesium fluoride 25 nm thick. NASA, doubting the competence of Perkin-Elmer, and fearing problems with the use of new technology, simultaneously ordered Kodak a backup mirror made in the traditional way.

Polishing the Hubble primary mirror at the Perkin-Elmer plant, 1979.

NASA's fears turned out to be unfounded. Polishing of the main mirror continued until the end of 1981, so the launch was postponed first to 1984, then, due to delays in the production of other components of the optical system, to April 1985. Delays at Perkin-Elmer reached catastrophic proportions. The launch was postponed twice more, first to March and then to September 1986. At the same time, the total project budget by that time was already $1.175 billion.

Disaster and anticipation

On January 28, 1986, 73 seconds into its flight over Cape Canaverel, the space shuttle Challenger exploded with seven astronauts on board. For two and a half years, the United States stopped manned flights, and the launch of Hubble was postponed indefinitely.

Space Shuttle flights resumed in 1988, and the vehicle's launch was now scheduled for 1990, 11 years after the original date. For four years, the telescope with its onboard systems partially turned on was stored in a special room with an artificial atmosphere. The cost of storing the unique device alone amounted to about $6 million per month! By the time of launch, the total cost of creating a space laboratory was estimated at $2.5 billion instead of the planned $400 million. Today, taking into account inflation, this is more than $10 billion!

There were also positive aspects to this forced delay - the developers received additional time to finalize the satellite. Thus, the solar panels were replaced with more efficient ones (this would be done two more times in the future, but this time in space), the on-board computer was modernized, and the ground-based software was improved, which, it turns out, was completely unprepared by 1986. If the telescope were suddenly taken out into space on time, ground services simply would not be able to work with it. Sloppiness and cost overruns happen even at NASA.

And finally, on April 24, 1990, Discovery launched Hubble into space. A new stage in the history of astronomical observations began.

Unlucky Lucky Telescope

If you think that this is the end of Hubble's misadventure, you are deeply mistaken. Troubles began right during the launch - one of the solar panels refused to unfold. The astronauts were already putting on their spacesuits, preparing to go into outer space to solve the problem, when the panel became free and took its proper place. However, this was just the beginning.

The Canadarm manipulator releases Hubble into free flight.

Literally in the very first days of working with the telescope, scientists discovered that Hubble could not produce a sharp image and its resolution was not much superior to earth-based telescopes. The multi-billion dollar project turned out to be a dud. It quickly became clear that Perkin-Elmer not only indecently delayed the production of the telescope's optical system, but also made a serious mistake when polishing and installing the main mirror. The deviation from the specified shape at the edges of the mirror was 2 microns, which led to the appearance of strong spherical aberration and a decrease in resolution to 1 arc second, instead of the planned 0.1.

The reason for the error was simply shameful for Perkin-Elmer and should have put an end to the existence of the company. The main null corrector, a special optical device for checking large aspherical mirrors, was installed incorrectly - its lens was shifted 1.3 mm from the correct position. The technician who assembled the device simply made a mistake when working with a laser meter, and when he discovered an unexpected gap between the lens and its supporting structure, he compensated for it using a regular metal washer.

However, the problem could have been avoided if Perkin-Elmer, in violation of strict quality control regulations, had not simply ignored the readings of additional null correctors indicating the presence of spherical aberration. So, due to the mistake of one person and the carelessness of Perkin-Elmer managers, a multi-billion dollar project hung in the balance.

Although NASA had a spare mirror made by Kodak, and the telescope was designed to be serviced in orbit, replacing the main component in space was not possible. As a result, after determining the exact magnitude of optical distortions, a special device was developed to compensate for them - Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR). Simply put, it is a mechanical patch for the optical system. To install it, one of the scientific devices on Hubble had to be dismantled; After consulting, the scientists decided to sacrifice the high-speed photometer.

Astronauts maintain Hubble during its first repair mission.

The repair mission on the shuttle Endeavor did not launch until December 2, 1993. All this time, Hubble carried out measurements and surveys independent of the magnitude of spherical aberration; in addition, astronomers managed to develop a fairly effective post-processing algorithm that compensates for some of the distortions. To dismantle one device and install COSTAR it took 5 days of work and 5 spacewalks, with a total duration of 35 hours! And before the mission, the astronauts learned to use about a hundred unique instruments created to service Hubble. In addition to installing COSTAR, the telescope's main camera was replaced. It is worth understanding that both the correction device and the new camera are devices the size of a large refrigerator with the corresponding mass. Instead of the Wide Field/Planetary Camera, which has 4 Texas Instruments CCD sensors with a resolution of 800x800 pixels, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 was installed, with new sensors designed by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Despite the resolution of the four matrices being similar to the previous one, due to their special arrangement, greater resolution was achieved at a smaller viewing angle. At the same time, Hubble was replaced with solar panels and the electronics that control them, four gyroscopes for the attitude control system, several additional modules, etc. Already on January 13, 1994, NASA showed the public much clearer images of space objects.

Image of the M100 galaxy before and after COSTAR installation.

The matter was not limited to one repair mission; the shuttles flew to Hubble five times (!), which makes the observatory the most visited artificial extraterrestrial object besides the ISS and Soviet orbital stations.

The second service mission, during which a number of scientific instruments and on-board systems were replaced, took place in February 1997. The astronauts again went into outer space five times and spent a total of 33 hours aboard.

The third repair mission was split into two parts, with the first one having to be completed behind schedule. The fact is that three of Hubble's six attitude control system gyroscopes failed, which made it difficult to point the telescope at a target. The fourth gyroscope “died” a week before the start of the repair team, making the space observatory uncontrollable. The expedition took off to rescue the telescope on December 19, 1999. The astronauts replaced all six gyroscopes and upgraded the onboard computer.

Hubble's first on-board computer was the DF-224.

In 1990, Hubble launched with the DF-224 onboard computer, widely used by NASA throughout the 80s (remember, the design of the observatory was created back in the 70s). This system, manufactured by Rockwell Autonetics, weighing 50 kg and measuring 45x45x30 cm, was equipped with three processors with a frequency of 1.25 MHz, two of them were considered backup and were turned on alternately in the event of failure of the main and first backup CPUs. The system was equipped with a memory capacity of 48K kilowords (one word is equal to 32 bytes), and only 32 kilowords were available at a time.

Naturally, by the mid-90s, such an architecture was already hopelessly outdated, so during a service mission the DF-224 was replaced with a system based on a special, radiation-protected Intel i486 chip with a clock frequency of 25 MHz. The new computer was 20 times faster than the DF-224 and had 6 times more RAM, which made it possible to speed up the processing of many tasks and use modern programming languages. By the way, Intel i486 chips for embedded systems, including for use in space technology, were produced until September 2007!

An astronaut removes the tape drive from Hubble for return to Earth.

The on-board data storage system was also replaced. In Hubble's original design, it was a reel-to-reel drive from the 70s, capable of back-to-back storage of 1.2GB of data. During the second repair mission, one of these “reel-to-reel tape recorders” was replaced with an SSD drive. During the third mission, the second “bobbin” was also changed. SSD allows you to store 10 times more information - 12 GB. However, you shouldn't compare it to the SSD in your laptop. Hubble's main drive measures 30 x 23 x 18 cm and weighs a whopping 11.3 kg!

The fourth mission, officially called 3B, departed for the observatory in March 2002. The main task is to install the new Advanced Camera for Surveys. The installation of this device made it possible to abandon the use of a correction device that had been in operation since 1993. The new camera had two docked CCD detectors measuring 2048 × 4096 pixels, which gave a total resolution of 16 megapixels, versus 2.5 megapixels for the previous camera. Some of the scientific instruments were replaced, so that none of the instruments from the original set that went into space in 1991 remained on board Hubble. In addition, the astronauts for the second time replaced the satellite's solar panels with more efficient ones, generating 30% more energy.

Advanced Camera for Surveys in the clean room before being loaded onto the shuttle.

The fifth flight to Hubble occurred six years ago, in 2009, at the end of the Space Shuttle program. Because It was known that this was the final repair mission, and the telescope underwent a major overhaul. Again, all six gyroscopes of the attitude control system, one of the precision guidance sensors were replaced, new nickel-hydrogen batteries were installed instead of the old ones that had worked in orbit for 18 years, damaged casing was repaired, etc.

An astronaut practices replacing Hubble batteries on Earth. Battery pack weight – 181 kg.

In total, over the course of five service missions, the astronauts spent 23 days repairing the telescope, spending 164 hours in airless space! A unique achievement.

Instagram for telescope

Every week, Hubble sends about 140 GB of data to Earth, which is collected in the Space Telescope Science Institute, specially created to manage all orbital telescopes. The volume of the archive today is about 60 TB of data (1.5 million records), access to which is open to everyone, as is the telescope itself. Anyone can apply to use Hubble, the question is whether it will be granted. However, if you don't have a degree in astronomy, don't even try, you most likely won't even get through the application form for obtaining information about the image.

By the way, all photographs transmitted by Hubble to Earth are monochrome. The assembly of color photos in real or artificial colors occurs already on Earth, by superimposing a series of monochrome photographs taken with different filters.

"Pillars of Creation" is one of Hubble's most impressive photographs of 2015. Eagle Nebula, distance 4000 light years.

The most impressive photographs taken with Hubble, already processed, can be found on HubbleSite, the official subsite of NASA or ESA, a site dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the telescope.

Naturally, Hubble has its own Twitter account, even two -

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