Monday, October 27, 2025 at 3:30 pm

Fiske Planetarium

John Grunsfeld, Endless Frontier Associates

"From the Hubble Space Telescope to the Habitable Worlds Observatory"

Abstract:

The Hubble Space Telescope story has been a fascinating study in public policy, engineering, ethics, and science. The Hubble is perhaps the most productive scientific instrument ever created by humans. In May 2009, a team of astronauts flew to the Hubble Space Telescope on space shuttle Atlantis. On their 13-day mission and over the course of 5 spacewalks they completed an extreme makeover of the orbiting observatory. They installed the Wide Field Camera-3, the CU/Boulder Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, repaired the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, as well as a number of maintenance activities. These Hubble spacewalks are considered the most challenging and complex efforts ever of people working in space. Now, 16 years later the Hubble is still going strong. Building on the servicing heritage of Hubble the Habitable Worlds Observatory is in the initial planning stages and promises to be a worthy successor to Hubble. As part of the design the Habitable Worlds Observatory will be serviceable, albeit by robotic means. The adventures of Hubble servicing and the future servicing of Habitable Worlds will be presented in this talk.

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