William Atkins
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 19:25
Science -
Space
Page 3 of 4
The Orlando Sentinel newspaper provides a series of questions and answers on the STS-125 mission.
ORLANDO SENTINEL
An interesting article in the Orlando Sentinel called “
More questions and answers about STS-125” provides many questions and answers on the mission. Do you remember when the first repair mission occurred to install a corrective lens (COSTAR) because the main mirror was polished incorrectly and did not produce a clear image of the Universe?
Well, COSTAR is being replaced with an instrument called Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). COS functions in the ultraviolet (UV) radiation range in order to analyze the chemical composition, density, temperature, and velocity of intergalactic gas and galaxies.
It is ten times more sensitive than current Hubble instruments, which will give Hubble an even better chance to discover and image never-before-seen objects out there in the Universe.
Interestingly, COSTAR is no longer needed to correct the defective main mirror because all of Hubble’s instruments now automatically correct for the abnormality.
You'll find more tidbits of information on the Orlando Sentinel article.
SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM
In addition, SpaceFlightNow.com is providing live updates of the mission on its Web site “
Mission Status Center,” along with a Twitter link.
Its latest news, the morning of May 12th, which is the astronauts first full day in space, states,
“Today will be spent inspecting Atlantis for launch damage. Other activities include checking out the spacesuits to be worn during the mission's spacewalks and preparing equipment for tomorrow's arrival at the Hubble Space Telescope.”
And,
“The shuttle's robot arm has grappled the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) and is lifting it out of the payload bay as the crew prepares to inspect Atlantis' wing leading edge, nose cap and belly tiles of the thermal protection system for any launch damage.”
Page four concludes with more from SpaceFlightNow.com, along with more from NASA.
