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Myth or fact?

keithatrochdale

By keithatrochdale
in The Astro Lounge

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keithatrochdale

keithatrochdale

Posted
Posted

Just seen this on another forum, what do people think?

QUOTE:

The Hubble telescope, was designed and funded by the US military. It orbited the earth for two years, pointing at the earth, taking extremely high res images of everything. When it was time "announce" it, it was given over to the scientific community and they launched it in the media, within days of it pointing out into space, it was announced (verified by many research organizations of note) that the mirror was flawed, and it was decommissioned for a few months until a correctional device was fitted to allow it to function.

What really happened was the most accurate mirror which the military produced held its shape when pointing at he earth, and when it was rotated to point away from the earth, gravity distorted it (it took a moon walk to fix it).

To this day no one will confirm the two years of "mapping" it did for the military; some independent astronomers did see it tracking the sky and were told it was a telecoms satellite.

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SteveL

SteveL

Posted
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Problem #1 - if there is no gravity in orbit, how can pointing it in any direction make gravity affect the mirror shape? Sounds like crackpot conspiracy stuff to me...I despair, I really do....

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John

John

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I read that the errors in the Hubbles optics were due to cutbacks in quality control during the production process. Apparently the errors would have shown up if quite simple tests, such as ones used by amateur mirror makers, had been employed.

I what I have read is correct then the irony is that the shuttle mission to correct the optics cost massively more than getting the optics right in the 1st place would have - talk about false economy !.

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SteveL

SteveL

Posted
Posted

:D:eek:

OK, I will rephrase... there is gravity being applied on all of the the hubble satellite, its pulling it towards earth, but its speed in orbit means that it is falling towards earth at the same rate as the earth is curving away from it... its always "falling", but never reaches it. As it is falling all the time, it doesnt experience any "weight". If there is no weight, how can something be distorted by which way it is pointing?

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FraserClarke

FraserClarke

Posted
Posted

Myth.

There would be no need to use HST as a spy satellite -- they already have enough. Whether HST is just a spy satellite pointing the other way is probably a better question. However, I strongly suspect that the instruments you want to put on a spy satellite are not the same as the ones you put on an astronomical observatory.

HST was never 'decommissioned' due to the problem with the primary. It kept on observing and producing data. The problem was resolved by installing 'costar' during a space walk (not a 'moon' walk, eeeh-he, ow!) about 3 years after launch.

The issue with the primary is well traced to a problem with the null testing setup during manufacture. It's nothing to do with the telescope orientation in space (which changes lot, and has other, much more subtle, effects).

Minor pedantic point which also disproves the '2 year' hypothesis; The shuttle didn't launch between Jan 86 and Sept 88. So there was no way to get it there 2 years before it was actually launched, in April 90.

The ultimate disproof though comes down to money. HST cost about 2 billion dollars. That's about 1 stealth bomber. It's peanuts to the US military -- why would they need to piggyback on an astronomy mission? They'd just build there own spy satellites (which of course they do) and do nothing else with them...

Myth busted.

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Doc

Doc

Posted
Posted

Could Hubble even track the Earth good enough to photograph it. Surely the Earth orbits too quickly for Hubble to compensate for that kind of motion, so objects on Earth leave long streaks across an image. It's just like trying to take a picture from a moving car: nearby objects will streak by, but far away objects appear to be moving slowly.

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yesyes

yesyes

Posted
Posted

These rumours probably come from the same people who believe that we never walked on the moon. Now they say we needed a moon walk to fix Hubble.

*goes to Tesco and buys every roll of tinfoil he can get his hands on*

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Shibby

Shibby

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Utter tosh.

Putting aside all the reasons why the military wouldn't need to do that for a moment, that very short paragraph is so full of scientific holes you could use it to drain your vegetables.

1) As Steve says, Hubble is in *orbit* and therefore is is constant freefall - reorienting the satellite makes no difference whatsoever to the gravitational forces on the mirror.

2) "Many research organizations of note", yet of course they are not noted.

3) How would a "moon walk" help anything??

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yesyes

yesyes

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Also, mapping/photographing the whole surface of the Earth would take more than 2 years, surely? The Mars orbiters are still photographing Mars after several years and Mars is quite a bit smaller...

Isn't Earth a bit too near for Hubble to focus? What's the minimum focus distance of Hubble?

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Talitha

Talitha

Posted
Posted
Just seen this on another forum, what do people think?

QUOTE:

The Hubble telescope, was designed and funded by the US military. It orbited the earth for two years, pointing at the earth, taking extremely high res images of everything. When it was time "announce" it, it was given over to the scientific community and they launched it in the media, within days of it pointing out into space, it was announced (verified by many research organizations of note) that the mirror was flawed, and it was decommissioned for a few months until a correctional device was fitted to allow it to function.

What really happened was the most accurate mirror which the military produced held its shape when pointing at he earth, and when it was rotated to point away from the earth, gravity distorted it (it took a moon walk to fix it).

To this day no one will confirm the two years of "mapping" it did for the military; some independent astronomers did see it tracking the sky and were told it was a telecoms satellite.

:D What a bunch of nonsense... that post has more flaws in it than the Hubble's mirror did. Thanks for sharing this with us though, i needed a good laugh. :)

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