Name: Saving Hubble
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<div class="rich-text">(This program is no longer available for online streaming.) Hubble is in trouble—the Hubble Space Telescope, that is. The hugely productive scientific instrument that has generated so many stunning images of the universe is due for a service call—its last. Host Neil deGrasse Tyson travels to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where he is given special access to the astronauts who are training for one of the most complex missions ever attempted.
</div>

Astronauts prepare for the final mission to revive the ailing Space Telescope.

NASA Astronaut

AURA

Director, Hubble Servicing Mission

<div class="rich-text">Astronauts prepare for the final mission to revive the ailing Space Telescope.</div>

Saving Hubble

Space & Flight

<div class="rich-text"><h3>
 SAVING HUBBLE
</h3>

 PBS Airdate: July 9, 2008



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 Hi, I'm Neil
deGrasse Tyson, your host of NOVA scienceNOW.


 Here's
a question I get asked a lot: "How many astrophysicists does it take to change
a light bulb?" Well, depends on the circumstances. For instance, what if the
light bulb is on a priceless crystal chandelier? And you had to change the
light bulb wearing boxing gloves? And what if that chandelier is way up high
and you have to stand on the top of a tall, rickety ladder to reach it?


 Whoa!


 What
if this intricate job must be performed in space?


 These
are just the sorts of challenges, all together, at once, facing astronauts on
an important and risky mission. A team of specialists prepares for emergency
surgery, a risky procedure that will cost millions.


 Luckily,
this patient is a celebrity, with an excellent health plan—courtesy of
the U.S. government—the Hubble Space Telescope.


 The
Hubble is probably the best-known scientific instrument ever. Since 1990, it's
brought us unprecedented views of the universe and revolutionized astrophysics.



 MATT
MOUNTAIN:
 
 Twenty years ago, before the
Hubble flew, we didn't know how big the universe was or how old it was. Now we
do. We didn't know that black holes really existed. We now know that black
holes are everywhere. And the Hubble Telescope was the first telescope to
actually examine the composition of a world around another star. Without the
Hubble, none of those things would have happened.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 But now, Hubble is
in trouble. It's dying, and half its instruments, including the camera that
took these pictures, are already dead. The only hope to save Hubble is a
shuttle mission, scheduled for this fall. It won't be the first one. Since
1990, astronauts have been there four times, installing new mirrors, doing
maintenance and replacing scientific instruments.


 A
fifth trip was in the works, but the 2003 Columbia disaster caused NASA to
cancel the mission as too risky. If anything were to go wrong, rescuing the
astronauts would be extremely difficult.


 Nonetheless,
after numerous appeals from scientists, astronauts and especially the public,
in late 2006, NASA decided to try one more Hubble mission.



 MATT
MOUNTAIN:
 
 This mission is one of the most
complex that they've ever undertaken. And the risk of dying is one in 70. I
mean, it's incredible; these are very brave people.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 Two teams of
astronaut spacewalkers will do the work. John Grunsfeld leads one team. He's
been to Hubble twice before.



 JOHN
MACE GRUNSFELD
 
 (NASA Astronaut)
 
 :
 
 The Hubble was designed to be serviced by people,
to take things out, put things in, turn bolts, keep it running.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 Leading the second
team is Mike Massimino. He worked with John Grunsfeld on Hubble, in 2002.



 MICHAEL
MASSIMINO
 
 (NASA Astronaut)
 
 :
 
 If we can fix Hubble, with its new capabilities, it's
going to make some great discoveries.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 There's lots to do:
replace batteries, install a brand new camera, swap out gyros, remove old
optics, install a new spectrograph, and more.



 MIKE
MASSIMINO:
 
 Generally, what we do is we
come up with a whole replacement for an instrument or for a piece of equipment.
And even if something little is wrong with it, you don't mess with it, usually.
You just pull it out and put the whole new one in.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 This mission is
different. There's a broken instrument they can't replace: the Advanced Camera
for Surveys, or A.C.S., which died just last year.


 Ever
since it was installed, in 2002, A.C.S. has been the workhorse camera on
Hubble, taking 70 percent of its pictures, detecting some of the most distant
objects in the universe and helping to solve some of the greatest mysteries in
modern astrophysics. With no replacement available for A.C.S., astronauts will
try something they've never done before: actual repairs in space.



 CHUCK
SHAW
 
 (Director, Hubble Servicing Mission)
 
 :
 
 Instead of just replacing or adding
components, we're actually going inside.



 CHRISTY
HANSEN
 
 (Astronaut Trainer)
 
 :
 
 We're changing an electronics card out. We've never
done that on orbit.



 CHUCK
SHAW:
 
 It's more like neurosurgery.



 MIKE
MASSIMINO:
 
 At first it sounded like this
would be impossible.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 To find out how
they plan to do this "mission impossible," I went to Goddard Space Flight Center,
in Maryland. Deputy Program Manager Mike Weiss took me through the world's
largest cleanroom. Every tool, part and new instrument going to Hubble is kept
here.


 They
do some serious air filtering in this place.


 You're
telling me this entire wall is nothing but HEPA filters?



 MIKE
WEISS:
 
 That's right.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 Why?



 MIKE
WEISS:
 
 Well, when you're in a hospital operating room, the
thing that's dangerous to a patient is germs. The thing that's dangerous to
Hubble is contamination.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 Dust, dandruff,
even stray skin cells on Hubble's optics would blind some of the pixels,
putting a spot on all future Hubble photos.


 In
the heart of this super clean operating room, is a life-sized mockup of the
patient: the part of Hubble containing the instruments. Deep inside is A.C.S.,
the vital organ that's failed. It might look like a refrigerator, but this big
black box is actually a precision digital camera.


 Just
like any digital camera, A.C.S. runs off electronics. And that's what's died,
the power supply. To fix it, 32 tiny screws have to be removed, then a cover,
then circuit boards have to come out.


 Okay,
so this would be the offending power supply board. Even though right now it's
just a smooth surface, I would see printed circuitry here and...



 MIKE
WEISS:
 
 Absolutely.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 ...components?



 MIKE
WEISS:
 
 Right, absolutely. And they're going to pull all
four of these boards out.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 So this seems easy
enough. Where's the challenge?



 MIKE
WEISS:
 
 The challenge is it was never designed to be pulled
out like that, with an astronaut wearing a glove, and it could compromise the
glove. It could have sharp edges.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 "Compromise the
glove" is euphemism for me losing the pressurization of my suit and dying?



 MIKE
WEISS:
 
 Ultimately.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 Danger is just one
challenge. Working while weightless is quite another. Things like tools and
loose screws will float. And if you're not strapped down, when you try to turn
a screw, your body turns instead.


 So
how do they learn to do this work?



 MIKE
MASSIMINO:
 
 It's hard. You know, if you're going
to play a baseball game you can go out to the field and take batting practice. But
to go to space, you show up for the World Series without practicing on the
field, so to speak, so you've got to get all your practice in other places.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 The best place to
practice spacewalking is underwater, at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in
Houston.



 MIKE
MASSIMINO:
 
 The Neutral Buoyancy Lab is a
fancy name for a big giant pool. You can fit a whole space shuttle in there,
plus a whole space station. It's huge. They try to get us neutrally buoyant,
and that enables us to practice our spacewalking. We can egress the space
shuttle and move along the handrails and work with the telescope. And it's very
close to learning the body positioning and the skills you need to spacewalk.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 It might look easy.
But doing anything in a stiff pressurized suit is tough, grueling work.



 MIKE
MASSIMINO:
 
 You can get tired. You're in
this suit for about eight hours. There's no food in there with you, so you have
to have a good breakfast. You do have a drink bag so you can drink water while
you're doing this, but you really need to be in the best shape you can be in.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 It's roughest on
the hands; in stiff gloves they take quite a beating.



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 We've had astronauts losing
fingernails, you know? Black and blue, and the fingernails fall off after a few
days. Fact of the matter is, the glove rules.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 So just imagine,
the glove rules and you're trying to fix A.C.S. Well, here's the instructions:
first, remove 32 screws from power supply cover; don't lose these. Next, pull
off cover, exposing circuit boards. Remove four circuit boards; caution: these
may be sharp. Insert new circuit board assembly, replace cover. Batteries not
included.


 Oh,
and by the way, those 32 tiny screws? If just one floats into Hubble, it could
trash the telescope forever.


 So
how are they going to get those screws out safely? With a special contraption
designed just for this mission: the Fastener Capture Plate.



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 It's basically a panel that is
made out of a clear plastic and has holes in that you can put a screwdriver
through.



 MIKE
MASSIMINO:
 
 But small enough so that
nothing will come out.



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 As a result, we can remove all
those screws. They'll float around, but we won't lose any. And then we can take
the cover plate off.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 To get a feel for
what it's like using the Fastener Capture Plate, I decided to try it myself.


 In
space, 32 screws have to come out. I figured I'd try two. So I've got my
miner's light into number 17. Steady. There we go. I'm in. We are succeeding, I
think. I am not succeeding. And I can't imagine doing this in a spacesuit.


 Doing
it in a spacesuit is exactly what John Grunsfeld has to do, in space and
practicing it in the pool. After making his way over to the Hubble mockup, the
first step is get inside, to the dark, nearly inaccessible corner where A.C.S.
is located.



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 Okay, I have the Fastener
Capture Plate; I've got three knobs. Bueno, what are they called?



 MIKE
GOOD:
 
 The three hard docks?



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 Up in the control
room, engineers and other astronauts monitor the checklist on which Grunsfeld's
every move is scripted against a timeline.



 MIKE
GOOD:
 
 Okay, so you've engaged the three latches?



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 Affirmative.



 MIKE
GOOD:
 
 And then I've got some other tools for you to pick
up. Let me know when you're ready.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 Removing the screws
would be challenging, even if they were out in the open. But where they are,
they're almost impossible to reach.



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 Because of the bulk of the
spacesuit, I can't get in far enough really to see them straight on. So I'm
going to be kind of working around the corner with the screwdriver.




 Number 3 is hard to see.



 MIKE
GOOD:
 
 Copy, three is difficult to see.



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 Yeah.



 MIKE
GOOD:
 
 Okay. And was there a problem with the Fastener
Capture Plate sticking on there?



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 What's happening is the
reflection of the tool on the plastic is making it so I can't see if I'm in the
screw head. It's just...it looks like the teeth are rounded out.



 MIKE
GOOD:
 
 So the screw is stripped?



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 Yeah.



 MIKE
GOOD:
 
 Okay.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 A stripped
screw—in space, this would be a huge problem, possibly ending the A.C.S.
repair.


 After
six hours, the practice spacewalk is over.



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 It went miserably. We had all
kinds of problems. The little crosses in the Philips head, in the torque set,
stripped out. And that's one of those disaster scenarios where then we're not
going to get the cover plate off. So my confidence in this task is probably at
its all-time low right now. But that's the way it goes.



 NEIL
DeGRASSE TYSON:
 
 The Hubble
servicing mission is scheduled for this fall. Even now, they're still working
to perfect those spacewalks. But no amount of practice will make it a sure
thing or a safe thing.



 JOHN
GRUNSFELD:
 
 You got four and a half million
pounds of explosive fuel; it would be foolish not to think about the risks. So
I think each individual astronaut has to ask themselves the question: "Is this
risk worth it?"


 Going
to upgrade and repair the Hubble Space Telescope, to serve science, to enable
great science and to enable great future discoveries, that's something that I
believe is worth risking my life for.
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