Aug 15 1985
From The Space Library
Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. personnel fitted the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) wide-field/planetary camera (WFPC) into the Hubble Space Telescope, the JPL Universe reported. They then removed and returned it to JPL for modifications and testing. “Everything went fine,” Dave Rodgers, JPL's WFPC project manager, said. “There were no problems with any of our equipment.” The WFPC consisted of two complete camera systems with different focal lengths. There were four cameras in each system, all sharing the same housing and electronics. The wide-field camera would obtain a wide perspective of a region in the sky, while the planetary camera would make high-resolution studies of individual objects. “It's called a planetary camera, but you can use it for any object that you want to study in detail,” Rodgers explained.
Besides planets in earth's solar system, the planetary camera would study galaxies and star-like objects such as quasars. Astronomers could also use the camera system to search for clues suggesting the presence of other planets orbiting nearby stars. Because the space telescope would be above the earth's obscuring atmosphere, it would be able to detect objects 100 times dimmer than those visible from earth with about 10 times greater resolution.
The orbiting observatory was a major part of NASA's astronomy effort through the end of the century. Space Shuttle crew would service and replace in orbit the space telescope instruments, keeping the telescope operating for at least 15 years. (JPL Universe, Aug 23/85, 1)
A sophomore at Purdue University and a senior at San Francisco's Lowell High School designed experiments to be carried on two 1986 Space Shuttle Flights, the Washington Post reported. Kentucky Fried Chicken would sponsor an experiment in which eggs would fly in orbit to determine whether chicken embryos could survive the rigors of weightlessness. The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California would sponsor an experiment to measure the effects of weightlessness on cell division in yeast.
Greg Delory, 16, said he got the idea for flying baker's yeast from the first Spacelab mission where bread mold was grown in orbit. “The mold was supposed to produce spores every 22 hours, but in space it lost its circadian rhythm and produced spores all the time,” he said. Delory won a competition to design a Space Shuttle experiment while attending the U.S. Space Camp under the auspices of Marshall Space Flight Center.
John Vellinger, 20, who won a competition to design a NASA experiment, said, “We hope this will give us some data about the feasibility of raising chickens as a food source in space.” (W Post, Aug 15/85, A19)
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