Evolution of Space Telescopes: From Galileo to Hubble

1. “Optical Telescopes.” Dyer Teacher Workshop June, 2009 C. R. O’Dell Vanderbilt University

2. GalileanTelescope

3. GalileoSustermans

4. InventorRotated

5. GalileoGalilii’sTelescopes

6. Refracting Telescope

7. HeveliusTelescope

8. Telescopes-History

9. ChromaticAberration

10. AchromaticDoublet

11. YerkesTelescope

12. Telescopes-History

13. NewtonianTelescopeSchematic

14. Newton’s Reflector

15. Herschel’s Biggest Telescope

16. Lord Rosse

17. Telescopes-History

18. Ritchey24-inch

19. Mt. Wilson60-inch

20. 100-inch

21. 200-inch

22. Keck 10-m

23. Canary IslandTelescope

24. SALT

25. LBT-Schematic

26. Telescopes-History

27. Mona Kea

28. YerkesAerialView

29. Reasons for going into Space • Earth’s Atmosphere Blurs Out our View even when it is perfectly clear. This means that our view of the heavens is like that from a small telescope. • Usually a bigger telescope produces a sharper image. The HST images are 20X better than what is allowed by our Atmosphere. • The atmosphere also limits the energies of the photons that we can see.

30. 1923 • Hermann Oberth publishes “Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen” • In this small book he elucidates most of the modern reasons for putting telescopes in space. • The ability to exploit space for astronomy was and continues to be closely dependent upon transportation.

31. Space Travel in 1930.

32. The V2

33. 1945“Army Surplus” V-2 Rockets come to the US.

34. 1946 • The first “Think-Tank”, the RAND corporation commissions a study of potential uses of rockets. • Lyman Spitzer, then a 32 year old professor at Yale performs this study. • In this study he proposes building space observatories, leading up to something very similar to today’s HST. • Soon after its creation in 1958 NASA established building the HST as a long-term goal.

35. 1971-72 NASA begins to consider the HST. • One of the first things NASA did was to establish if the project was feasible (a Phase-A Study). • In parallel with studies by multiple contractors a group of scientists was convened at NASA HQ by Nancy G. Roman to provide feedback. • At the end of this study I was nominated by Lyman Spitzer to become the Project Scientist (September 1972).

36. Resolutionversus Time

37. Originally the design was for a 3-m aperture.

38. 1972-3mCrossSection

39. 1972-3mConfiguration

40. We had $$ problems from the beginning. • The original $300M price-tag was a dictated price. • Different configurations were considered. • Different sizes (1.8-m, 2.4-m, 3.0-m) were considered. • The 2.4-m configuration was chosen in June, 1975. • ESA became a 15% partner in late 1976.

41. A Skeleton Sketch.

42. HST CutawayCropped

43. This was the first spacecraft to be designed for maintenance.

44. NBSAxial SI Replacement

45. Primary Mirror.

46. Primary MirrorAfter Aluminizing

47. The telescope structure.

48. Focal Plane Assembly.

49. WF/PC Prelaunch

50. Transporting the Telescope to California.