Astronauts wrapped-up five days of renovations to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at 1606 GMT on Friday, 8 March, after fitting an experimental cooling system designed to revive one of telescope鈥檚 inactive instruments.
鈥淚nstallation went extremely well and the initial tests have come back positive,鈥� a NASA spokesman told New Scientist. Engineers conducted an 鈥渁liveness test鈥� to confirm that the cooling system could be started and controlled properly.
The Near Infrared Camera and Multi Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) has been inactive since 1999, when its original cooling system sprang a leak and its supply of nitrogen ice ran out. The cooling system could not be completely replaced as it is built into NICMOS. The new 鈥淐ryocooler鈥� had to be bolted onto the side of Hubble.
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It will be a number of weeks before scientists know whether NICMOS can be used, as the instrument must be recalibrated.
Potential for mistakes
Spacewalkers replaced Hubble鈥檚 two solar arrays during spacewalks performed on Monday and Tuesday, and installed a new Power Control Unit on Wednesday. On Thursday, a new scientific instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), was installed. Scientists hope this will improve the telescope鈥檚 imaging sensitivity by a factor of ten.
If all goes to plan, Hubble will be detached from the space shuttle Columbia at 1002 GMT on Saturday 9 March.
Brian Austin, NASA鈥檚 lead flight director for the servicing mission, praised the work of the astronauts aboard shuttle Columbia and said the modifications will give Hubble a new lease of life.
鈥淭here were lots of opportunities for mistakes and it was absolutely flawless,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t is a far better instrument than when it first launched. It鈥檚 got a whole new generation of technology in there now.鈥�