Informational Articals - Telescopes - Hubble Space Telescope
The largest and heaviest telescope ever designed is the Hubble Space Telescope. It belongs to NASA and it is used in outer space to provide scientists with a wealth of information about what it taking place out there. It has been in place since 1990 approximately 375 miles above the outer rim of the Earth. If the conditions on Earth are just right and the clouds are out of the way you can see it with your own eyes from time to time.
The range of activity that this particular telescope has been able to successfully transmit back to Earth is up to 12 billion light years away. In order to transmit images from that far away the telescope has to be very large and powerful. It is the size of a semi truck and weighs several tons. Most of the data that is sent back via the telescope though is in much closer range. The Hubble Space Telescope moves very quickly as it is able to circle the Earth in approximately 1 ½ hours.
The excitement of launching the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit was short lived in 1990 as one of the primary mirrors has problems that prevented the images from being viewed as they should have been. It was not until 1993 that a NASA mission was able to successfully replace these defective parts and make the Hubble Space Telescope usable.
As there are trips in to space by NASA the Hubble Space Telescope is completely looked over. Any types of maintenance or repairs that need to be done are attended to. It is also updated as new technology is emerging to ensure the very best information can be gathered from the Hubble Space Telescope.
The next mission for reaching this telescope is scheduled to take place in 2008. This trip by NASA is designed for the sole purpose of extending the life of the Hubble Space Telescope until at least 2013. Two new features will be added to the telescope at that time – the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera. All of the gyros and batteries will be replaced as well. The Hubble Space Telescope continues to be a very valuable tool for observing events taking place in space.
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