NASA astronauts stymied by stubborn Hubble handrail
by Stevie Smith - May 18 2009, 15:10
Pesky Hubble seemingly doesn't want to be fixed. Image: Nasa.gov
Having successfully launched and journeyed to the aging Hubble Space Telescope in order to deliver vital maintenance work, the crew aboard NASA’s Atlantis space shuttle have been temporarily flummoxed by the smallest of problems.
After completing three of the mission’s scheduled five spacewalks to bestow Hubble with new equipment and extend its service life through to 2014, astronauts working to repair a malfunctioning spectrograph were left scratching their helmet visors when an awkward bolt holding a handrail conspired with a faulty battery on a removal tool and brought the spacewalk to a halt.
Considering the advanced technology available to NASA mission specialists, astronauts Michael Massimino and Michael Good promptly resorted to brute force and yanked the handrail free in order to reveal a cover beneath that needed to be opened. However, with the handrail duly freed, the astronauts were then let down by a specialised tool that succumbed to battery failure before the cover’s 111 connectors could be removed.
Luckily, the astronauts didn’t have to break out a crowbar to solve the problem, and simply returned to the Atlantis whereupon the tool was fitted with a fully charged battery pack replacement.
With the cover duly removed, the mission team went on to successfully install a new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard Hubble; they have also restored the telescope’s important wide field channel via the new Wide Field Camera 3, and overhauled a set of ailing gyroscopes.
However, it hasn’t been all good news for NASA as Atlantis works to increase the longevity of Hubble, with the team unable to resurrect the telescope’s ACS high-resolution channel, which could now be completely inoperable and permanently inaccessible.
The mission’s final maintenance spacewalk is expected to take place today (Monday, May 18) before Hubble is released from the cargo bay of Atlantis and restored into orbit some 500 kilometres above the planet’s surface.
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