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btcarnovale

  • Date JoinedJan 5, 2008
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2
stringstretcher says: Jan 23, 2012. 6:34 AM
Read your comment about the telescope... what is the next frontier there? Electronics have advanced so much since the launch of that device that the game is quite different, don't you agree? I have seen a shift from optics to sensors. Too bad the optics story haunts the Hubble... I med a man named Joe Szell who was a bean counter on that project for Perkin Elmer. He felt very bad about the whole thing. Loved the thermal explanation, btw... thanks!
Jim in sweden
btcarnovale (author) in reply to stringstretcherJan 23, 2012. 8:05 AM
I retired about 8 years ago, and I was "only" a software person when I worked spacecraft programs. They let me talk to the hardware guys a lot because I had to understand the constraints/requirements for commands being used to control the "boxes".

Re the game being different. LOL. When you and I can buy a 15 megapixel hand held camera off the shelf for less than the price of a small car . . . yeah.

Hubble's optics problem was not entirely PE's fault. I'm not an optics guy, but my understanding was that a component called a "null corrector" was installed backwards. The whole thing would have been detected and corrected if the customer had not opted to try to save a couple bucks by eliminating an end to end test of the optics that could have been performed on the ground. Really ironic when you consider how long that thing sat on the ground waiting for a launch.

Glad you liked the thermal explanation.
2
stringstretcher in reply to btcarnovaleJan 27, 2012. 1:42 PM
I just discovered an old copy of Sky and Telescope I have had lying around forever... dated july 1989, and featuring an article on the Hubble telescope. Pictures and texts, a goldmine of ancient info ;)

I have heard so many variations of theories about the optics problems, mostly put forth by sofa astronomers (sort of like sofa football coaches). I am impressed even more by the performance of the thing when all things are considered.

What languages were the programs done in? How many years ahead of launch did you begin programming, and what languages were available then? My first programming experience was BASIC, on one of the teleprinter terminals in my jr. high school. Then we dabbled in Cobal! And the came the big stuff, Fortran. I never got very good at programming, but like to build the innerds instead. And THEN music took over my life and I learned to play the french horn and got paid to do it! So all my electronic dabbling was as an amateur, and I have never caught up.

I enjoy communicating with instructables authors like this, it is nice to see real people contributing, not just bloggers, if you get my drift.

Anyhow... nuff for now, I'm off to try and see some of the Northern Lights displays, if the weather will cooperate. I am in Sweden, and the reports have been fantastic!
Take care,
JIm
ps-- check out my youtube channel: shortyumpire some machines and goofy toys I have made there. enjoy!
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