Past ...future? NASA's Great Observatories 'an astronomica

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HUBBLE
Past future?
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Spitzer
Chandra
NASAs Great Observatories an astronomical
Mount Rushmore
Compton
Hubble
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Gains in orbit

• No atmospheric blurring
• Wider accessible wavelength range
• Instrumental stability
• No clouds/daylight (timing)

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Some HST Science highlights

• Structures of distant galaxies

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Some HST Science highlights

• Structures of distant galaxies
• Hubble constant from Cepheid variable stars

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Some HST Science highlights

• Structures of distant galaxies
• Hubble constant from Cepheid variable stars
• Black holes in (almost all) galactic nuclei

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Some HST Science highlights

• Structures of distant galaxies
• Hubble constant from Cepheid variable stars
• Black holes in (almost all) galactic nuclei
• Protoplanetary material near young stars

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Some HST Science highlights

• Structures of distant galaxies
• Hubble constant from Cepheid variable stars
• Black holes in (almost all) galactic nuclei
• Protoplanetary material near young stars
• Gravitational lenses

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Some HST Science highlights

• Structures of distant galaxies
• Hubble constant from Cepheid variable stars
• Black holes in (almost all) galactic nuclei
• Protoplanetary material near young stars
• Gravitational lenses
• Intergalactic gas and its history
• Stuff scattered all the way through the textbooks

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Instrument history

• 1990 FGS HSP FOS GHRS FOC
  WF/PC
• 1993 FGS CoSTAR FOS GHRS FOC WFPC2
• FGS CoSTAR NICMOS STIS FOC WFPC2
• 2002 FGS CoSTAR NICMOS STIS ACS WFPC2
• 200? COS, WFC3

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Hubble status, Sept. 2004

• Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph dead
• (only high-res/small-region spectrometer)
• 3 of 6 gyros (RSUs) functional (3 needed for full
  tracking, some observations with 2)
• Battery capacity decreasing (will be useless
  circa 2010)
• Estimated 50 failure time on above 2007
• Instrument/transmitter power cycling now reduced
  by rescheduling/eliminating parallel imaging

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Options

• Shuttle SM4 (OKeefe ruled out, CAIB concerns)
• Robotic mission (new tech, some changeouts very
  risky)
• Replace the whole thing (HOP proposal to refly
  COS/WFC3)

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Shuttle?

• Safe haven would mean standby orbiter
• Limited remaining flights earmarked to ISS
• Need for independent orbital inspection
• Victim of the Vision?
• Orbital mechanics 28.5-degree inclination,
  getting heaviest payloads highest from Cape
  Canaveral, restricts options now

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Servicing non-options

• Prohibitive energy requirements to co-orbit with
  ISS in reach of astronauts
• 28-degree orbit out of reach from Baikonur (ITAR
  restrictions aside)
• Ion thrusters would take the estimated telescope
  lifetime for orbit change
• 2015 estimated deorbit without boosting

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Robotics/teleoperation?

• Canadian ISS arm not required yet spare
• Some tasks straightforward, actually robotic plus
  teleoperations mission
• Double big/small arm
• Robot docking/deorbit committed already
• Tests make this look possible
• 2-piece spacecraft, Delta/Atlas launch
• 2007 a challenge budget is ballooning
• Political aspects re pinning blame

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Solar array connectors
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Replace capabilities?

• Technology since 1980 lots cheaper. Thin
  flexible mirrors, lightweight structures,
  stabilize mirrors rather than structure
• Unique access to optical/UV range
• Plan on table to fly 2.4m mirror with existing
  HST instruments (Hubble Origins Probe or HOP)
  could be as low as 250M.
• Need to decide who gets the instruments!

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Next up JWST
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James Webb Space Telescope

• Launch 2011, on Ariane V, to L2 region
• 6.5m deployable primary
• 0.6-20 microns (far red to mid-IR)
• Key problems formation of galaxies, first stars,
  maybe planets
• Spacecraft weight/mirror area ratio roughly that
  of Hubble mirror alone!

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And at other wavelengths
Chandra and its complement XMM-Newton
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Across the spectrum -
now FarIR MidIR nearIR opt UV farUV X-ray
gamma
FUSE
INTEGRAL
Spitzer
GALEX
WMAP
Hubble
Chandra
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Multispectral Greatest Hits

• Intergalactic gas
• Starburst galaxies
• High-redshift galaxies
• Evaporating planets
• Protoplanetary disks
• Growth of black holes
• Complexity of stardeath

• Gamma-ray bursts
• Supernova chemistry
• Quasar jets
• Stripped galaxies
• Pregalactic lumps
• Galaxy history
• Relativistic jets

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A panchromatic view -spiral galaxy M81
ROSAT GALEX Kitt Peak Spitzer VLA
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Across the spectrum -
soon FarIR MidIR nearIR opt UV farUV X-ray
gamma
FUSE?
JWST
INTEGRAL
Spitzer
Swift
GALEX?
Planck
Hubble?
Chandra and XMM
SIM TPF?
Herschel
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A new Universe to explore

• The full electromagnetic spectrum
• Open international competition for observations
• Public data archives (without mailing tapes!)
• The beginnings of the Virtual Observatory
• But astronomers think about facilities
  differently from NASA and ESA