Abstract
A study of the early development of what became the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the dedicated effort that drove the concept forward over a 25 year period. It began in the mid-1940s with the onset of the Cold War. By the late 1950s the theory of space flight had been established, and in the following decade it was greatly expanded upon to the point of landing men on the surface of the Moon and sending the first robots to fly close by the planets of the inner solar system. While the financial cost of such an adventure was extremely high, so too were the gains in technology, science, national pride, and political propaganda. Though the expected age of space commercialization was yet to be realized—and indeed is elusive half a century later—the birth of satellite applications suggested there would be significant rewards from studying the Earth’s resources, from space sciences, and from technological spin-offs. However, the expansion of space exploration was not as rapid as glossy publications issued by some studies had predicted.
Astronomers could hardly wait for the LST, a project that unified
the space science community as nothing ever did in the past.
James J. Hartford , Executive Secretary of the American Institute
for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA ), May 1974
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Notes
- 1.
The water tank at Marshall proved so successful that a larger tank was later built at JSC to assist in the development of space station assembly and maintenance techniques. As soon as this became available, astronauts switched their Hubble training to JSC in order to save time on traveling to Marshall.
- 2.
Current versions of these documents are NASA /TM-2008-215633, Terrestrial Environment (Climatic) Criteria, Guidelines for Use in Aerospace Vehicle, Development, 2008 Revision, D.L. Johnson , Editor, Marshall Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama; and NASA Technical Memorandum 82501 Space and Planetary Environment Criteria Guidelines for Use in Space Vehicle Development, 1982 Revision (Volume 11), Robert E. Smith and George S. West, Compilers George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama. These guidelines provide updated information on the natural environment for altitudes between the surface of the Earth and 90 km altitude for the principal areas. These guidelines supersede all editions of NASA Technical Memorandum 4511 Terrestrial Environment (Climatic) Criteria Guidelines for Use in Aerospace Vehicle Development dated August 1993. This was recommended for use in the development of design requirements and specifications for aerospace vehicles and associated equipment. The origin of the Terrestrial Environment (Climatic) Criteria Guidelines dates to the early 1960s. It was originally conceived by Glenn E. Daniels of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Aerospace Environment Division, and the early editions were prepared under his direction. He continued updating the document until his retirement from MSFC in 1974. After Mr. Daniels passed away in 2004, later editions were dedicated to his memory.
- 3.
Following the launch debris strike on Columbia in 2003, further studies were made prior to the final Hubble service mission in 2009. From this research the likelihood of a serious debris impact with the shuttle during SM-4 was a 1:229 chance; somewhat lower than had been thought. For SM-1 in 1993 the value was 1:150, then 1:761 for the 1999 SM-3 A and 1:365 for the 2002 SM-3B flight. Information gathered during earlier missions provide valuable data on the study of orbital debris, in particular from natural impacts and their effects on various types of hardware such as solar panels, the metals used in fabrication, and thermal protection materials. Studies of images and returned materials from Solar Max (1984) and LDEF (1990), a number of retrieved and repaired satellites, the shuttle orbiters, and various samples retrieved from spacecraft, together various experiments, have generated a huge database of the potential risks and effects from space debris.
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Shayler, D.J., Harland, D.M. (2016). A dream becomes reality. In: The Hubble Space Telescope. Springer Praxis Books(). Praxis, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2827-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2827-9_3
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