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More Space

Entry 874, on 2008-10-23 at 23:35:28 (Rating 1, Science)

After blogging in support of the space program yesterday there have been several items I have come across which have lead me to want to say more on the subject. I have heard several podcasts discussing some of the conspicuous recent successes of the space program and I don't know if many people are really aware of these so I thought I might discuss them here.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been a huge success. It could so easily have been different because there was a major problem originally where the main mirror was designed with the wrong shape. It wasn't that the manufacturing was defective, it was that the perfect curve was created according to the specification, unfortunately the spec was wrong! Luckily that has been able to be corrected without replacing the mirror itself, which would be a major operation.

The HST was designed to last 5 to 10 years. It has currently operated for 18 years and there are plans to extend this for another 5 to 10 years. That's pretty impressive value for one instrument because its still the premiere optical telescope in many ways (although there are far bigger ones on Earth they don't have the advantage of being above our atmosphere).

The HST has contributed in two ways. First, its brilliant clarity and resolving power has provided detailed optical observations which have helped in many scientific breakthroughs in astronomy. And second, the beautiful images it has provided have inspired interest in astronomy for many people who would otherwise not be interested.

Another success has been the Mars Phoenix mission. Missions to Mars have had a high failure rate so its particularly significant that this one has been so successful. The lander is now encountering the Martian winter and its power source will probably fail due to lack of sunlight, but it is still working a long time after its original expectations and has shown us a lot of interesting things about Mars' soil chemistry, climate and geology.

The web site for this mission has a Mars weather report: maximum temperature -25 degrees C, minimum -90 degrees C. Atmospheric conditions: dust devils.

The final example and ultimate example of a mission which has gone away beyond its original expectations is Voyager. I have blogged about the Voyager spacecraft before because to me they represent the ultimate expression of reliability and pushing technology beyond what anybody thought was possible.

Voyager I is almost 15 light hours away and has been travelling for about 30 years. It could have a life of another 20 years. But don't expect too many more high resolution photos. Even if there was anything to take pictures of out there it would take a long time to send the data back at a few bits per second!

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