Seminar
The fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and the scientific prospects of the repaired HST

Abstract

The Hubble Space Telescope has been given new life with the successful Servicing Mission 4 (SM4). The goal of each servicing mission to the telescope has been to replace instruments and other system components that would enable better science productivity and enlightenment. But never before has the notion of repairing existing broken instruments in the telescope been considered because of the complexity of such an activity... until now. During SM4, two new scientific instruments were installed – the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3); two failed instruments, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), were brought back to life by the first ever on-orbit repairs; and, the spacecraft original batteries were replaced with new ones that will keep HST powered well into the next decade. But what will the scientific observations look like? The evidence is here with the release of the early observations from each instrument, and the news is wonderful!