Hubble Trouble Introduction The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 It is one of NASA’s most successful and long-lasting missions Was a direct solution to the atmosphere problem Because it partially blocks or absorbs certain wavelengths of radiation, like ultraviolet, gamma- and X-rays, before they can reach Earth The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the age of the universe to be about 13 to 14 billion years More than 10,000 scientific articles have been published based on Hubble data It moves at about five miles per second and completes a spin around Earth every 97 minutes What went wrong in the development of the Hubble Space Telescope? The Hubble Telescope had a flaw called spherical aberration. Caused by the miscalibration of a measuring device used when polishing the mirror The mirror had a flaw in its grinding about 1/50th the thickness of a sheet of paper The light that bounced off the center of the mirror focused at a different place than the light that bounced off the edge, which caused blurry photos http://www.spacetelescope.org/about/history/aberration_problem/ What was the impact / consequences associated with this error ? Image quality was much lower than expected due to a defect called a spherical aberration Caused by a malfunction of measuring device used for polishing the primary mirror Light in the images was directed to an out of focus halo-like shape that reduced the usefulness of the telescope for faint objects A main repercussion of this was that all the cosmological programs (a main driving feature of this telescope) could no longer be successful NASA was the laughing stock in the media Omar Basulaiman () - I think the first point is already mentioned in previous slide What actions did the HST development team employ to preclude the problem from happening ? Replacing the mirror wasn’t a good idea, so the team decided to build replacement instruments that fixed the flaw. (Same as the optical glasses effect.) The corrective optics and new instruments were installed on Hubble by spacewalking astronauts during a shuttle mission in 1993. The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) instrument, about the size of a telephone booth, placed into Hubble five pairs of corrective mirrors that countered the effects of the flaw. Why weren't the actions that the team employed sufficient to prevent this embarrassing problem from occurring ? Ultimately the orbit is beginning to decay due to gravitational drag, causing the telescope to eventually hit Earth in 8-10 years. As the telescope orbits Earth, it spends half its time in sunlight and half without. These temperature changes causing vibration, expansion, and contraction. These vibrations cause it to get pushed out of orbit. The only other option is to keep sending servicing missions to update the equipment and push it higher ...

1. Hubble Trouble
Introduction
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990
It is one of NASA’s most successful and long-lasting missions
Was a direct solution to the atmosphere problem
Because it partially blocks or absorbs certain wavelengths of
radiation, like ultraviolet, gamma- and X-rays, before they can
reach Earth
The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the age of the
universe to be about 13 to 14 billion years
More than 10,000 scientific articles have been published based
on Hubble data
It moves at about five miles per second and completes a spin
around Earth every 97 minutes
What went wrong in the development of the Hubble Space
Telescope?
The Hubble Telescope had a flaw called spherical aberration.

2. Caused by the miscalibration of a measuring device used when
polishing the mirror
The mirror had a flaw in its grinding about 1/50th the thickness
of a sheet of paper
The light that bounced off the center of the mirror focused at a
different place than the light that bounced off the edge, which
caused blurry photos
http://www.spacetelescope.org/about/history/aberration_proble
m/
What was the impact / consequences associated with this error ?
Image quality was much lower than expected due to a defect
called a spherical aberration
Caused by a malfunction of measuring device used for polishing
the primary mirror
Light in the images was directed to an out of focus halo-like
shape that reduced the usefulness of the telescope for faint
objects
A main repercussion of this was that all the cosmological
programs (a main driving feature of this telescope) could no
longer be successful
NASA was the laughing stock in the media
Omar Basulaiman () - I think the first point is already
mentioned in previous slide

3. What actions did the HST development team employ to preclude
the problem from happening ?
Replacing the mirror wasn’t a good idea, so the team decided to
build replacement instruments that fixed the flaw. (Same as the
optical glasses effect.)
The corrective optics and new instruments were installed on
Hubble by spacewalking astronauts during a shuttle mission in
1993.
The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement
(COSTAR) instrument, about the size of a telephone booth,
placed into Hubble five pairs of corrective mirrors that
countered the effects of the flaw.
Why weren't the actions that the team employed sufficient to
prevent this embarrassing problem from occurring ?
Ultimately the orbit is beginning to decay due to gravitational
drag, causing the telescope to eventually hit Earth in 8-10 years.
As the telescope orbits Earth, it spends half its time in sunlight
and half without.
These temperature changes causing vibration, expansion, and
contraction.
These vibrations cause it to get pushed out of orbit.
The only other option is to keep sending servicing
missions to update the equipment and push it higher
up and back into orbit.

4. What SE processes / actions should the James Webb Space
Telescope development team consider employing to preclude
such a problem from occurring in this successor space telescope
?
Quality Control
NASA relied entirely on the test results from a single
instrument considered. Later tests detected the error but were
dismissed because the preliminary testing instrument was
considered “more accurate”
Management throughout the project’s entire life cycle
NASA found that Perkin-Elmer (optics components) did not
supervise or review the construction of the mirrors throughout
the entire project.
Perkin-Elmer did not assign best scientists to the project as it
did for the prototype
Optical designers were not involved in the construction and
verification of the mirror
Communication
If the Hubble’s problems were communicated early-on, then its
problems could have been prevented.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergWal-Mart: It Came, It
Conquered, Now It's Packing Up and Leaving
By Shannon Pettypiece
Bloomberg Business, January 25, 2016 — 2:00 AM PST
The Town’n Country grocery in Oriental, North Carolina, a
local fixture for 44 years, closed its doors in October after a
Wal-Mart store opened for business. Now, three months later --

5. and less than two years after Wal-Mart arrived -- the retail giant
is pulling up stakes, leaving the community with no grocery
store and no pharmacy.
Though mom-and-pop stores have steadily disappeared across
the American landscape over the past three decades as the mega
chain methodically expanded, there was at least always a Wal-
Mart left behind to replace them. Now the Wal-Marts are
disappearing, too.
“I was devastated when I found out. We had a pharmacy and a
perfectly satisfactory grocery store. Maybe Wal-Mart sold
apples for a nickel less,” said Barb Venturi, mayor pro tem
for Oriental, with a population of about 900. “If you take into
account what no longer having a grocery store does to property
values here, it is a significant impact for us.”
Oriental is hardly alone. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Jan. 15 it
would be closing all 102 of its smaller Express stores, many in
isolated towns, to focus on its supercenters and mid-sized
Neighborhood Markets. The move, which will begin by the end
of the month, was a relatively quick about-face. As recently as
2014, Wal-Mart was touting the solid performance of its smaller
stores and announced plans to open an additional 90.
That’s a big problem for small towns, often with
proportionately large elderly populations. For the older folks of
Oriental -- a retirement and summer vacation town along the
Intracoastal Waterway -- the next-nearest grocery and pharmacy
is a 50-minute round-trip drive.
Wal-Mart says it is sensitive to the dislocations its business
decisions are causing.
“In towns impacted by store closures, we have had hundreds of
conversations with elected officials and community leaders to
discuss relevant issues and we are working with communities on
how we can be helpful,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Brian Nick.
Wal-Mart has been under increasing pressure lately as sales in
the U.S. have failed to keep up with rising labor costs. It’s also
been spending more on its Web operations. In October, the

6. company announced that profit this year would be down as
much as 12 percent. The outlook contributed to a share decline
of 29 percent during the past 12 months.
“It is more important now than ever to review our portfolio and
close the stores and clubs that should be closed,” Wal-Mart’s
Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said in a statement on
the company’s website.
Shuttered Stores
Towns like Clearwater, Kansas, and Merkel, Texas, are among
those hit by Wal-Mart closures. In Godley, Texas, with a
population of roughly 1,000, Wal-Mart opened a small store just
a year ago. Within months, the only other grocery store in town
-- Brookshire Brothers, part of an employee-owned regional
chain -- shut its doors. Now with Wal-Mart gone, the closest
full-service grocery store is about a 20-minute drive away.
In some cases, closed businesses may reopen now that Wal-Mart
has left. In Merkel, the Lawrence Brothers grocery store, which
closed two months ago, is planning to reopen now that Wal-
Mart is packing up, said Jay Lawrence, head of the regional
chain in Texas and New Mexico.
Residents of Oriental, where some city officials originally tried
to block Wal-Mart from opening, are hoping for a similar
outcome now that the megastore is gone. But for the moment the
damage has been done, they say.
Renee Ireland Smith, who ran Town’n Country, said the store
immediately saw sales fall by 30 percent once Wal-Mart opened
in May 2014. Whenever her store cut prices, Wal-Mart would
reduce its prices even more. Smith’s mother, who owned the
store, invested $100,000 in savings into the doomed effort. But
by October, the family decided to cut its losses and close the
business.
“They ruined our lives,” said Smith of Wal-Mart. “They came in
here with their experiment and ruined us.”