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In another section of the exhibit hallway, these cases
hold additional astronaut tools. The middle case contains tools
used to repair the Advanced Camera for Surveys, a workhorse
camera whose power supply failed after almost five years of
service. To fix the instrument, astronauts had to first use this
grid cutter to slice through a metal grid that blocked a cover.
That cover had to be removed to get to circuit boards underneath
it. The tool contains 12 individual cutter blades on the
back that sheared through the metal grid when the front bolts
were turned. The astronauts then used the Fastener Capture Plate,
a tool that prevented 32 small screws that were holding that
cover on the instrument from floating away when they were
taken out. Next, astronauts used a card extractor to remove four
circuit boards that were under that cover. One of those circuit
boards is located in the next display case to the right. The
overall repair was successful and the instrument has now been
functioning longer than it did before its initial failure. The
built-in display case on the wall has parts of the first
spectrograph that flew on Hubble – the Goddard High Resolution
Spectrograph. It flew in space for 7 years. It was designed to
measure the intensity of light at different wavelengths to
reveal information about an object’s properties. The
spectrograph used gratings, which act like prisms to break
the light into a rainbow. Special detectors then captured
the spectral data from the rainbow of light produced by the
gratings. The other half of the built-in display case contains
more awards received by the Hubble mission as well as
various Hubble mementos, including US flags and
spacecraft insulation that flew in space. On the far wall is a
copy of one of the blueprints of the Hubble Space Telescope that
was made in 1981 when Hubble was being built. We hope you have
enjoyed this tour of the Hubble Space Telescope Control Center.
To find out more about Hubble or its operations, explore our
website at nasa.gov/hubble or follow us on social media
@NASAHubble. [music fades out]