The Hubble Space Telescope is a large optical telescope launched into Earth orbit by the space shuttle Discovery in April 1990. By escaping the optical distortion caused by the atmosphere of the Earth, Hubble can see farther and more clearly into the depths of space. NASA communicates with the Hubble through a dedicated satellite network that is not open to outside access. It is not possible to pick up these signals at home, meaning that the only way to communicate with the Hubble is to make an official request through the NASA agencies controlling it.
Instructions
1. Write a proposal for a project that requires use of the telescope. Each year, around 1,000 projects are submitted;approximately 200 are chosen by a review panel of astronomers. This results in around 20,000 actual observations being made.
2. Submit the proposal to the review committee at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is located in Baltimore, Maryland. Experts assess the project and pass it on to technicians who will create the actual computer instructions that can be relayed to the telescope. The proposals are judged by whether they make good use of the Hubble's capabilities and whether they address a pressing astronomical question or issue.
3. Request that STSI technicians send the computerized telescope instructions from the Space Telescope Science Institute to the Hubble Space telescope control center at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where a team is in constant communication with the Hubble. From Goddard, the instructions are sent to the Hubble's communications ground station in White Sands, New Mexico. From there, they will be beamed to orbiting Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) and on to the telescope.
4. Contact the Space Telescope Science Institute to receive the results of the observations requested from the Hubble. Data from the telescope pass through the communication chain in reverse, starting at the telescope and passing through the relay satellites, ground station and control center at Goddard before being collected and archived at the Institute.
Tags: Space Telescope, Hubble Space, Science Institute, Space Telescope Science, Telescope Science