Right from the very beginning the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been designed to be a new type of mission - a permanent space-based observatory that could be regularly visited by the Space Shuttle and serviced.
At the same time astronauts would be able to replace or upgrade outdated science instruments
Hubble's position above the Earth's atmosphere means that these science instruments can produce high resolution images of astronomical objects.
Ground-based telescopes can seldom provide resolution better than 0.5-1.0 arc-seconds, except for very short times under the very best observing conditions. Hubble's resolution is about 5-10 times better, or 0.05-0.1 arc-seconds.
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THE LAYOUT OF THE HUBBLE INSTRUMENTS
On board Hubble all the instruments are placed in the
so-called radial instrument bay (in red) and in the axial
bay (in yellow). |
