NASA's $50 Million Hubble Mistake
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- Опубліковано 23 кві 2021
- Soon after the Hubble Telescope launched, scientists realized there was something wrong with it’s mirror. This video looks at how Hubble’s mirror ended up being flawed and how NASA fixed it for 50 million dollars.
References:
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Music used in this video:
» Reconciliation - Asher Fulero
» Stuck In The Air - The Tower Of Light
» Double You - The Mini Vandals
» Marianas - Quincas Moreira
» See You - Maxzwell
» Air To The Throne - Doug Maxwell
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Credits:
Written and edited by Ewan Cunningham ( / ewan_cee )
Narrated by: Beau Stucki
#Nasa #Hubble #HubbleTelescope - Наука та технологія
Hopefully the James Webb telescope doesn't have any similar problems... Shoutout to KiwiCo for supporting this video, give them a try and support the channel! kiwico.com/PrimalSpace50
Yup, I swear if JWST has troubles, I'm gonna cry...
Ye
I hope not its a long time coming and it cost far too much and a pretty greedy military contractor got the job and still did it late and blew the budget. Its an infrared telescope so we should be able to see as far as we can in the observable universe . I also hope space x can get a refueling drone to refuel it.
@@snivla4 I live in Karachi Pakistan and I like your comment if you don't mind
@@skm8838 I live in Karachi Pakistan and I like your comment thanks Anno domini
My high school science teacher was a jerk and bragged about working on the Hubble mirror. I bet it was his mistake haha
LOL yeah that is why he's a teacher now. 😂
what if he worked for kodak xD
@@xukiomi prob not tbh
Given hes a high school teacher now, he was likely just veeery loosly connected to the project and just likes to brag
@@hieverybody4246 lmaooo
Missed the story where the manufacturer actually found the problem before delivery, but management didn’t trust the measurement...
This is not r/maliciouscompliance. :D
Yep, that’s a big issue. Same with NASA and the o-ring failure of Challenger‘s boosters.
Ignorance can be very costly and also life threatening
That’s most of the story. They measured twice. Once with an older instrument that turned out to be properly calibrated and accurate, and once with a newer one that turned out to be misconfigured and therefore, not as accurate. The error was in trusting the newer instrument over the older one rather than properly validating the results.
@@HylanderSB yes, and I am surprised they did not doublecheck. I am not surprised the Japanese got it right the first time, that would have been seen as a major coup for the Japanese at the time. So they would be sure to put their best on it.
That's what happens when you let politicians meddle with science.
It's gonna be a real shame to see Hubble deactivate, but it's done good work over the years it's been up there.
But it will be the beginning of a whole new era because of the james webb telescope, can't wait for that one
That one is definitely worth the excitement, I can only wonder what new discoveries we make with it
@@themadman5615 yeah I can't wait! It is said to be around a hundred times more powerfull than the hubble telescope, and to imagine what the hubble telescope already found!
Literally no one has seen any image taken by this hubble bullshit and you are here moaning about how Sad it is to see this shit deactivating?
@@Piyushrahi Achieved Unlocked! : You have reached a new level of stupidity.
I remember watching the repair mission on TV at the time. Their dumbed-down explanation was that Hubble had blurry vision and needed glasses to see better. As a kid at the time I knew the real reason must be much more complicated than that. But I guess it turns out that was actually a pretty decent explanation; it just left out a bunch of additional interesting information.
story musgrave, the main astronaut on the repair mission described it like moving a grand piano on ice
That was a pretty good explanation. Hubble's optical system had a small amount of spherical aberration. They installed corrective optics to fix it. They gave hubble some glasses.
i remember watching the repairs too i think it was on cspan… nerd alert! lol
One of the most amazing parts of this is the fact they did the repair and replacement IN SPACE?!
Yep fucking amazing, blows my mind
orbital mechanics are a beautiful thing...
@@Kermitted1 nothing that amazing, when you have billions and billions of dollar budget, space x is doing the same in million in 2021 not considering inflation means 1 billion in 90s > 10 billion now..
@@niks660097 how do you think they understand the ways to do this? they just know? or was it because someone had to do it before to understand how to. Also space x is a company not being run by a government that can block things and has to get so many approvals to do simple tests. I don't doubt that space x is doing an amazing job with space travel but don't discredit other space agencies as it was a lot harder to do things like this and they had to discover how to do it a lot of the time.
@Hell N Degenerates Your name makes sense...
Hubble is an incredible feat of engineering especially considering how long ago it was. Will be sad when it is officially deemed end of life, but it will be exciting to see what the new one (James Webb) will do.
Fuck, you mentioned it. Add another couple years before the launch
@@Golinth notie hoohah boobah
And then the telescope after that will b even better.....
Now let’s hope this doesn’t happen to the james Webb telescope because if it does the James Webb telescope can not be repaired so the telescope will essentially be scrap
And then politicians will use it as an excuse to ban any further space research and exploration because it's "too costly"
i was gonna write this comment but you did it for me...
Not impossible just tricky.. as in robotic mission tricky.
That's why the launch was delayed for over 3 to 4 times now. Hopefully, the current estimated launch date (October 31st, 2021) wouldn't get delayed any further. And technology have evolved since the Hubble got launched onto the outer space to the orbit the Earth. Hopefully there wouldn't be more mistakes. The team must be creative and detailed on every details nor features JWST had. Much like when they made the Perseverance Rover with the Ingenuity Helicopter and the Oxygen Box inside of it.
@@sspeedd8809 The Hubble mistake wasn't missed because the technology didn't exist to catch it. It was missed because of incompetence. Perkin Elmer did actually run a test that showed the mirror had a problem, but because the new technique was supposed to be so much more accurate, the bad results were ignored.
It is rumoured, that to this day, a lone NASA employee still sits on Hold to Perkin Elmer Customer Service waiting for a refund and prepaid returns lable.
... So the legend goes.
Gosh. It would have been nice to tell a different story on Hubble's birthday, but I guess after 30 years, we're just happy to be remembered.
Like maybe talk about how HST got almost no boost from SM-4 and yet still has an expected service life that will extend into the 2030's (based on orbit trends) without another servicing mission. Add a servicing mission and I'm sure that could go into the 2050's.
@@HylanderSB h
Great video - long live Hubble!
First reply and like
Hi Jared
Hi l am a subscriber of you
How does this not have likes?
Hey there
I have heard many times of the hacked repair performed in Hubble, but never new how exactly it worked. Good job.
"However, as the engineers were setting up the null corrector, one of the mirrors was set up incorrectly, perfectly cancelling Hubble's flaw" yeah.. more like one or the engineers adjusted it cause he was petrified his boss was going to chew him out for fucking up the mirror. We've all done shit like this at work. Usually the consequences aren't quite as bad though.
Bro faxxx I was thinking the same thing. Like pull shit the mirrors flaw aligned perfectly for the null corrector and the space fix. Calling bullshit
@New Guy The null corrector is an apparatus to test the mirror, it doesn't actually fix it.
How though? BOth Perkin and NASA surely would've done their own tests
@@midgetwars1 If they had, they would have discovered it was faulty. The main point is, the space industry back then was damn cavalier and just kind of, went with stuff. For Hubble it was an expansive fault, but later stuff like that cost lives.
Mistakes like that is why they teach you not to torture your employees for mistakes.
I've heard of the mirror defect from one or two other youtubers, but the fix seems to be glossed over a bit, which I won't knock them for-they're still great videos, but I'm really happy that the fix was covered here. Thanks!
my great uncle is Story Musgrave, the lead astronaut of the repair mission, look up his talks and lectures online, he's extremely cool. he had a falling out with NASA and almost everything I've seen about this omits him and the other astronauts on the repair mission.
I remember at the time, newspapers nicknamed it "hobble."
IIRC, they also developed a software filter to partially correct the mirror aberration until COSTAR was deployed
Humanity need to recapture Hubble and bring her back to a museum.
That would be so badass, someone's gotta get Musk to commit to it on twitter haha
That was the original plan, but (un)fortunately Hubble outlived the space shuttle.
Her? lol
Can it fit into Starship? If so, it might not be that hard, actually.... I mean, still very hard, but not insane...
@@moonzestate it lol
My grandfather was the head of the optics polishing dept at Perkin Elmer Nowalk CT., at the time. When I asked him what went wrong he said that "Hubble was such a big deal, the engineers grabbed the mirror and moved it to a different plant, instead of leaving with the his group that knew what they were doing".
My uncle's good friend was the one who helped design the smaller mirror to fix the flaw in the larger mirror. He also knew the team members that used the null corrector on the larger mirror and he once said to us, "NASA left the most important part of the process to three buffoons that graduated college with a 3.2 GPA. They were so laser focused on testing the large mirror that they totally neglected to test the test setup."
The moral of the story (especially for software engineers writing code tests) is to remember to examine the logic of your test code to make sure you are accurately testing the right things. If your tests come out flawlessly, make sure you are testing exactly what you think you are testing.
This video is incorrect - the null corrector was what they used to measure the mirror during polishing. as the null corrector was off - the mirror was perfectly polished to the wrong spec.
That's what they said
they also had an offer from Zeiss... about 10% more expensive. which is well below the usual difference in price of Zeiss products, when compared to the concurrence and back when it still meant something. could have been the bargain of a century.
Why? They had the original mirror and two backups. Both backup mirrors were correct in their optics. All that had to be done was to compare the original mirror against the two backup mirrors as part of quality control and the answer would have been to use one of the backup mirrors.
I mean... when we're talking about optics Perkin Elmer doesn't ring any bells. In Romanian "zeiss" is also a slang for "perfect". Perkin Elmer sounds like a hillbilly name, just sayin'
*Primal Space videos are always enjoyable and fun to watch!*
They perpetuate mistakes because they repeat stuff without knowing one way or the other if it is right.
This video is wrong in identifying the cause of the error.
The positioning of the mirror in the null corrector is not a coincidence that perfectly matched the error.
It is what caused the error in the first place.
ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19910003124
That testing is how the polishing process was directed.
There were three mirrors not two.
There was one by Itek too that is used in a telescope somewhere.
One of the best achievements made in human history which is not often talked about. Some great discoveries were made by Hubble.
Figuring out that hubble is basically a giant version of my telescope at home was a fun moment.
Your videos are very informative and entertaining! You just earned yourself a sub
Hi i have a question do you want to join my space community?
Now, I have heard it said that even with the defect Hubble's images are still better than any ground-based telescopes at the time.
The guy who fixed hubble got the idea in the shower by looking how the shower head moved and how it ran up and down its vertical rail and how it flicked out . He made the correctional lens and used the shower head idea to get it a bit like a ship in a bottle to deploy the optics. That would be the costar instrument...
pics or didnt happen
@@DanielFenandes Its on one of the space disaster or hubble documentaries you fool its totaly true dont tell me it didnt happen I know you wanted that reply I aint a liar.
@@snivla4 pics or didn’t happen
@@DanielFenandes yeah ok you are the sort of person I thought you were have fun Dan . YM .
It was conceived in the shower of a German hotel room. There, nearly three years ago, while preparing to ask a European Space Agency team if it had any idea how to fix the Hubble, NASA engineer James H. Crocker encountered a shower head that extended and adjusted to accommodate bathers of almost any height.
The great thing about such remarkable mission is the ingenious backup plan they have. What if something fails, they have the option to correct it.
It's sad to see Hubble go, wonder what the future will bring us.
James webb
@@asefjamilajwad probably will
Mars
@@beneluxia890 James Webb will never fly. Darkness looms more and more surely. Chances are we may lose all the satellites orbiting our planet. I think the party is over for us. We have been shown what we could have been a part of, but we failed to grasp the opportunity to become a part of it. Instead we have let ourselves be entertained by the pranks of various space agencies which could never have been of any use to us. Now we have to face the consequences of our stupidity.
Hey man, could you not take a bong hit and ramble on in the comments, maybe get a voice recorder and put your stoner thoughts on there...just a thought
What the hell are the chances that the one mirror was misaligned just right to make the laser line up perfectly... Insane!
Yeah I’m pretty sure there was a cover up
@@IsaiahDanielJohnson On what grounds? Are you familiar with the calibration method?
"I dont understand something, must be a conspiracy "
@@logitech4873 maybe they just didn’t actually do the check, and just claimed it was a mistake afterwards? Idk
The chance is zero. This isn't what happened. The incorrectly installed null corrector was used to guide the grinding of the mirror. That's why it was ground to exactly the wrong shape. The device that measured the mirror was the same device used to make the mirror, so of course they agreed.
More like Hubbble's secret hidden "b"
I live in Karachi Pakistan and I like your comment if you don't mind
I live in Düsseldorf Germany and I don’t understand your comment if you don’t mind
@@paulpaulsen7777 "Hubble" in the title of the video used to be accidentally written "Hubbble"
@@cdemr oh, ok, thank you. Now it’s already fixed and that’s why I didn’t get it. Thank you
So, this was the most expensive "measure once, cut twice" ever made? Now I don't feel quite so bad about mine. XD
The name Hubble is synonymous with space and that’s just brilliant
That's not because of the Hubble telescope, though; the Hubble telescope was itself named after a famous astronomer, Edwin Hubble.
This is at least the third version of "why the Hubble mirror was flawed" I found so far, which makes me wonder (even more) what the real reason / mistake was. Nevertheless, the way it was fixed is the amazing part.
Exactly... The reason in this video is the most incorrect one I've heard so far. Someone somehow just happened to incorrectly install a test mirror that "perfectly cancelled out Hubble's flaw"... What a load of impossible garbage. There are better and correct explanations in other videos.
@@gpetheri plz show
@@gpetheri may share a link for a bröther?
@@macmarc6661 ua-cam.com/video/OqZ68VYMRgE/v-deo.html
Like I said, nobody magically installed a mirror incorrectly the precisely cancelled out the mirror flaw, after polishing. The device used to calibrate the polishing process in the first place was flawed.
@@Dimitri88888888 ua-cam.com/video/OqZ68VYMRgE/v-deo.html
Like I said, nobody magically installed a mirror incorrectly the precisely cancelled out the mirror flaw, after polishing. The device used to calibrate the polishing process in the first place was flawed.
Thanks for making videos
I really liked this episode. The video was longer and content seemed denser. Great work.
awesome video, i has listen this history since i as a child, but now i understand fully what happens....congrats man!!!!!!
I wish the Shuttle was in service so Hubble could be recovered and preserved in a museum.
Alas, no.
Starship inbound
i think i never fully realized just how massive this telescope really is
As big as a school bus if im not mistaken. but wait for the James-Webb, it will be waaay bigger and better!
You can see a replica in Kennedy Space Center.
@@KafshakTashtak yeah i am a lil out of reach tho...i live in Italy lol
About 12.5 tons, so nothing crazy. Just like 4-6 cars. lol
I came here from reading The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester because I couldn't visualize what he was writing. I was surprised to learn there was a backup mirror (perfectly made, no less), that the primary contractor refused to have their work checked by a third party, and that-according to a comment below-the contractor found the problem ahead of delivery, but management went ahead and delivered it. What a wild ride!
A friend of mine who worked on the Hubble telescope told me that years ago (back in the 1990s) that management had been informed of the problem with the Hubble mirror but had ignored the warning and went ahead with delivery anyway.
@@davidh6513 Lol. The sheer madness of it all!
Nice interesting video thank you
I will use a simple analogy. Many years ago, one of my first jobs was making eyeglass lenses. What we did was find out what curvature was needed for what the glass was called for. Then we hooked up a tool with a diamond edge and locked it into a spindle. Now the diamond cutting edge was slowly rotated back and forth across the grinding wheel as it rotated, slowly moving the cutting diamond more into the grinding wheel with each pass. Before starting this process, we had curvature pins that we would use to calibrate different curvatures of the grinding wheel. Long story short, they started with an improper curvature, and polished the wrong curvature to near perfection! The solution was to install a contact lens.
Perkins Elmer screwed the pooch but in the end it was proven that delicate repairs could be performed in space , which was always a claim that was made to justify the shuttle program with human astronauts. The Hubble has paid off its cost with our increased understanding of the universe. Overcoming problems in space is at least as important as having successes the first time around.
9:29 I still can't wrap my head around the fact that this is an actual footage of the Starship Flip Maneuver.
AFAIR these events back then Perkin Elmer (we had an instrument from them in our lab) did not consider the second (or higher) order diffraction on the sensor which was essentially a pipe with a very small diameter (thus the diffraction) collecting the light reflected by the mirror to be tested.
Guess that "NASA" and "management" never were two words that fit well together...
They put a drone that works on Mars.
Who can make a similar claim?
I live in Karachi Pakistan and I like your comment
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 I live in Karachi Pakistan and I like your comment if you don't mind
judging by what NASA achieved versus other space agencies - I say they are epitome of management
@@olasek7972 Though they are not without their faults. They kinda pooched the safety management of the shuttle program. But yes, it takes some organizational acumen to put a human on the moon 50 years ago, send a probe out of our solar system, land several on Mars, and keep the ISS supplied in personnel and toilet paper.
We need to have a “Hubble telescope” day.
I hope we can push it up to a good long term parking orbit. If I could, I would make it the first in space museum object!
Bringing Hubble back with a Starship would be amazing as well, problem being I don't think we could ever trust a vehicle with such an important job. The best case scenario IMO is to completely outfit Hubble in orbit with Starships, new solar panels, instruments ect. It would never be able to out do the JWST but for it to inspire future generations taking it's awesome true color images would be amazing. Plus IIRC Hubble was put in such a low orbit so the Space Shuttle could service it, with Starship this isn't a problem so it could operate at much higher altitudes.
@@aarons1234 The JWST is not a replacement for Hubble. They don't observe the same wavelength of light. JWST is an infrared telescope. Hubble was a visible light telescope (and also did some IR and UV).
That last part was quite emotional for me
You deserve more subscribers
this guy with just stock footage and voice over already has nearly half a million subs. That's half of everyday astronaut and a lot more than nasa spaceflight who apparently have been investing shitload of money in equipment to produce and deliver high quality unique footage with top notch presentation. And you still think this guy deserves more? Jesus Christ.
My Uncle knew the guy who fixed the Hubble Space Telescope, he was a really cool guy and it was cool meeting him.
Very cool!
I'm excited for October 2021, I hope the James Webb Telescope would finally be out there.
It's already been pushed back again.
Love the vid
This achievement is amazing
💯💯💯
everyone talking about the Hubble telescope:
me: dam that sponsor plug was slick
COSTAR is about the size of a telephone booth ~~> I was a janitor at Ball Aerospace Boulder back in the 90s when an employee told me that. Every night I could sweep the lunch room and watch a live feed of its installation mission on this big old CRT. Then it happened! They had Polaroids of the celebration all over the wall! Success! Everyone was in tears... And the images to come were amazing ~~>
I charge my master pro at 3 amps on 2 x 300w panels, perhaps a 3rd panel on angle connected to a 100amp mppt solar regulator to a 12v 100ah battery , either a lithium or a lead acid deepcycle.
up to 4 batteries, of the same type of course, connected to a 3000w pure sine wave inverter.
To charge at more than 3amps you could maybe go 24v set up in my 5c opinion and see how that goes.
Im Not sure how many houses are going home solar or what effect on the grid requirements that might have.
My opinions. is a useful saying i hear.
Merry Christmas,wishing you nice success and to be well Mr Ark from Will.
As is where is use at own risk.
My opinions, Thank you.
I hope things go better all round.
Man I remember the Hubble being launched and it’s being taken down due to being extremely outdated now
I’m just glad to have seen it launch
Extremely outdated?
@@stargazer7644 yea the technology is outdated but still useable
4:19 The testing program didn't involve looking through the assembled telescope to see if it was blurry.
You got this a little backwards. The null corrector wasn't made to test the mirror, and it didn't magically have exactly the error needed to miss the error in the main mirror. The device was used to guide the grinding of the original curve into the mirror. That's why it was ground perfectly wrong. Also, Hubble wasn't useless with this flaw. It was still used to do successful science in the time before the first servicing mission.
I remember this problem. Hughes Aircraft was fined $XXM's along with Perkin Elemer who made the lens in the 1980's. P-E had issues manufacturing the lens so the project was delayed years. Then the lens was ready the challenger blew up so more years of delay. Hubble was maintained and stored by NASA for years at a cost of ~$10M/year close to a decade delay.
What sucked is Hughes aircraft bought P-E just before the launch. Hughes had nothing to do with the design and manufacturer of the faulty mirror but when NASA found the issue, Hughes was sued since they owned P-E.
Some news article said Hughes would not have bought P-E if they knew the mirror was faulty and NASA knew and did not tell Hughes.
Who knows what the real story is.
I hope scientists designed James web telescope repairable to some extent,in case starship develop successfully
It isn't. It is going out to the L1 Lagrange point. It will be too far away from Earth to ever be serviced. It's why it is being so heavily tested and so slow to launch. They're making sure it's perfect.
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 yeah i know but maybe a robotic mission can repair to some extent
@@amirsafari7140 Maybe in the distant future robotics will be so precise they can do that sort of finnicky and fine repair work a million miles away from Earth, but not currently. The best we can do so far is launch a satellite that then in turn launches a basic satellite of its own that can go up to and take pictures of another satellite -- and all of this is in Earth orbit. It's used to snoop on spy satellites, but our governments don't call it that or admit to it.
I think given the complexity of JWT and how it's not designed to be serviced or repaired ever that it won't be accessible by man or machine. We'll just have to build another space telescope. This is why JWT is being so heavily tested and retested and then tested again. It's been 30 years since JWT was designed and well over 10 billion dollars at this point. But it will be a game changer once it launches later this year.
JWST was not designed to be servicable.
@@stargazer7644 a satellite can go and grab the jwst and bring it back to low earth orbit,and then another starship can bring it back on earth,repair the satellite and launch it again with Starship
man, can't wait to see more space objects with the jwt
hubble is like a history book when it retires a few decades later we will remember this special telescope that provided the basic knowledge of the early universe and contributed to the evoloution of space telescopes and maybe in the year 3000 the future scientists will understand how valuable this telescope was
And as of yesterday, it's offline due to memory module errors,both the primary and backup... :(
Plz , we need one more video about ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) ......we are eagerly waiting for that.....hope our wish come true.....
Hopefully, better quality control with James Webb. 🤞
5:42 - "Repair Hubble's mirror" that's not a repair though, it's a workaround, since repairing a mirror would mean physical alteration to it which was even less possible than replacing the mirror
I love the fact that Hubble needed glasses.
Another nice vid
The James Webb Telescope is so powerful & can see so far back in time it can see Federal Agency NASA’s original promised launch date & budget.
James Webb Space Telescope Development began in 1996 for a launch that was initially planned to launch 2007 with a $500 million budget. Current Cost is $11.3 billion to develop, $878 million to operate. 14 years & 1700% over budget.
Great story!
As far as expensive mistakes goes this has to be up there.
Kodak standing there be like:
🧍🏼♂️
I've always wondered if Hubble's mirror issue was that it got a mirror for the KH-12 spy satellites (which are like Hubble, but pointed to earth), instead of the proper scientific mirror.
I’m glad hubbles computer glitch was finally fixed
Hi i have a question do you want to join my space community?
No mention of the company that actually designed COSTAR as well as trained the astronauts to do the maintenance. The same company that built the only remaining operational instruments on Hubble.
"only remaining operational instruments on Hubble" - All of the science instruments on Hubble are operational.
"Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"
Wow time passes fast. Dang.
The world's most perfect mistake was that Hubble primary mirror. It was so perfectly wrong it could be perfectly compensated.
Amazing!
did COSTAR make it as good as it would have been if made correctly, or just better-than-broken ?
As far as i know they corrected it -> 100%
No, but it was pretty close. Every time you add another element in the light path, it causes some loss, no matter how good it is. But it was good enough that it allowed Hubble to achieve all of its science goals.
ALTHOUGH this is not the channel Curious Droid, it is good HOWEVER 👍
2:43 "the 2 companies (those of main and backup mirror) did not collaborate" ...
NASA had to require them to collaborate ...
Sooo.... When is Webb telescope launch date? is it still in this decade or they shifted it even further?
It is November 2021 at the moment.
some people say we should only send robots into space but what robots could have fixed Hubble TWENTY PLUS YEARS AGO? even today we don't have robots capable of such precise work.
EFF ya! Great video!💪❤️
NASA really is a stellar example of both the best and most robust engineering in the world, and at the same time a stellar (hah!) warning about mismanagement, miscommunication and not following their own protocols. Sometimes this has caused space telescopes to be flawed and space probes to fail. Other times it has caused the loss of life in absolutely horrendous disasters.
It's actually incomprehensible how NASA can be both one of the best engineering entities in the world, yet still have these flaws. For example, their software development methods are arguably the best in the world. Where in other typical engineering firms practical testing will usually reveal thousands of bugs, in NASA projects practical testing will usually reveal less than 5. That's because the software development routines used at NASA make it almost impossible for bugs not be caught at a much earlier stage (or for those bugs to even be made in the first place). Moreover, while in the vast majority of software development companies when a bug is found it's simply fixed and forgotten (with, at most, some unit tests added to catch that particular bug), at NASA the software development model is examined and devised in order to find out _how_ that bug got through to testing unnoticed, and how to improve the process to fix that hole and make it less likely for similar bugs to happen in the future. And absolutely no change is made to code without it being extensively documented (much unlike in the vast majority of other software development companies).
And, incredibly, regardless of all this software development bureaucracy, NASA software development usually stays within deadlines and budgets, much unlike most other companies. (Or, maybe, it's _thanks_ to all the software development bureaucracy.)
Yet, on the other hand, absolutely inconceivable incompetence is sometimes shown, allowing space telescopes to have critical flaws, and rockets to explode costing lives, because of ignoring and bypassing NASA's own safety protocols.
mirror: slightly bent by 0.1 nanometer
the quality: 144p
In the future, there may be cheap technology for repair robots in space. It might help resurrect Hubble. However, by then Hubble may be completely obsolete and no longer worth it. Maybe it was retired a long time ago.
I’m sure it will be retired in the next 15yrs, I hope they take it down as a museum piece
Kodak after knowing the hubble mirror they used was flawed while they mirror wasnt : 🙄
more videos pls
It's crazy how they could make this mistake. There were so many ways to test it before launching, they could even just tested it as a telescope from earth. Just insane.
I love how they even ordered backup lenses just in case, but then did only one flawed test and just went with it.
It actually wasn't that simple. The mirror was ground to the shape it would have when weightless. On Earth, gravity would cause the mirror to sag and distort the shape during a test. Testing it before launch was certainly possible, but not as an assembled optical system.
@@macmarc6661 They didn't do just one test. The mirror was tested thousands of times while it was being ground. The problem was their test instrument was bad.
A simple test for the mirror is see the image it produces, instead waited for telescope in space to check its images. Which every, every hard to correct.
The question that I hoped your video would answer is how the mistake was made in the first place - and what the insane coincidence was that resulted in it not being detected. You kinda glossed over the part of the story that I wanted an answer to. Also, by the time the corrective lenses had been fitted, most of the problem of the lens had been fixed with software that reprocessed the blurry images...and that part of the story needs to be explained too.
There was no coincidence. The device used to measure the curvature of the mirror was called a null corrector. It was assembled incorrectly due to an error that resulted from a missing chip of non-reflective paint on a calibration rod. This resulted in the field lens of the null corrector being put in the wrong place. The null corrector was used to guide the grinding of the mirror. That's why the mirror was made precisely wrong. It is true software deconvolution was used to sharpen the original blurry images, but no software can replace the light that was being lost and thus lowering the telescope's sensitivity. The deconvolved images were not nearly as good as the corrected ones. There are very detailed reports available that explain exactly what went wrong, and how they fixed it.
@@stargazer7644 So they used the same "null corrector" when grinding the mirror as when testing it later? That seems like asking for trouble.
@@SteveBakerIsHere The null corrector is what told them how to grind the mirror. There was no separate testing step at the end. It was tested all throughout the grinding process with the null corrector. When making a mirror you grind it for a bit, then you check it to see how close you are to the desired curve, and where you need to grind more. Then you repeat this many, many, many times. This is normally not a problem, because you're supposed to be using a test instrument that will compare your mirror with the desired shape. Yes, skipping the independent testing step was a mistake in this case.
@@stargazer7644 Yeah - no second check. No concept of having two null correctors - preferably made using different techniques by different contractors!
@@SteveBakerIsHere They actually did use two older surface testing methods to look at the mirror at various times. They both clearly showed spherical aberration. But since those methods were less accurate than the null corrector, they chose to disregard them and rely on the null corrector. The device they designed was very good. But due to an error in calibration during assembly, it was not setup correctly. If it had been, the mirror would have been fine, even without additional testing. And that's what they had learned from previous mirrors they constructed. They also had a reverse null corrector that simulated a perfectly figured mirror. When they used that with the existing null corrector, it clearly showed an error. There were lots of chances to catch this mistake, and they all were thrown away.
these people are incredibly smart, my god. Who even thinks of the COSTAR, and how do they know how to make it work?!?! insane
I remember when they had to tune that up too…studied pictures in high school on a different planet.
I can t belive that i actualy cried of how beutiful is the engineering
Hearing that music at the end makes me think I’m about to see the LA Beast vomit up 15 ghost peppers
I remember watching a program before Hubble was launched about how the mirror was perfect.
It was perfect. Perfectly wrong.
6:58 i thought the guys with glasses was john lennon LOL.