>> JOHN: All right, Tool Time take 126. [SLATE CLACKS]
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
>> JOHN: Hi, I’m John Grunsfeld, NASA astronaut.
>>RUSS: Hello, I’m Russ Werneth, I was the EVA manager for Hubble
Space Telescope from Goddard. >>JOHN: All right, EVA is an
acronym for extravehicular activity, which is just a really
long way of saying “spacewalk.” I’m wearing some spacewalk
gloves- >> RUSS: I noticed that! >> JOHN: To talk about
spacewalking on the Hubble Space Telescope. Now the Hubble Space
Telescope, we all know, it’s that amazing observatory in
space that helps us unravel the mysteries of the universe. But
when Hubble was first launched in 1990, we discovered the
mirror was just slightly incorrect shape and so the
images were fuzzy. >> RUSS: And that slight incorrect problem
with the mirror was around the outside edges it was 1/50th the
diameter of a piece of human hair too flat. >> JOHN: But it
was enough that we couldn’t do the science we had to do.
>>RUSS: Space optics, yes. >>JOHN: So, in 1993, a crew of
women and men went up to do five spacewalks to change out one of
the scientific instruments with the Corrective Optics Space
Telescope Axial Replacement, or >> BOTH: COSTAR. >> JOHN: Which
corrected that optics. In order to take that instrument out they
had to use a power tool. >>RUSS: Now one thing I’d like to
say about Hubble Space Telescope is that it was designed,
engineered, originally, quite uniquely, to be
“take-apart-able.” Not a real word, but that means, and I
think everybody understands, that a scientific instrument, or
a solar array could be taken off and replaced in case something
had gone wrong with it, or it needed repair. And guess what?
We get new technology all the time! >> JOHN: The designers put
in standardized bolts and interfaces, this means
connectors, the bolts, and even doors on the telescope that
opened and closed. And they had, those doors had bolts on them,
and this tool was one of the tools used to help undo the
bolts of the instruments of the doors: it’s called the power
ratchet tool. >> RUSS: This, this was the initial power tool
that we used, as John said, on our first servicing mission back
in 1993. It’s doesn’t weigh much in space. >> JOHN: Floats.
>>RUSS: Floats in space. But it is kind of bulky, so in tool
development in the future we came up with other power tools,
but at the time this was the tool of choice that we used for
the tasks that we had on that very first servicing mission.
>>JOHN: And so this was used with an extension on it and a
socket, to turn bolts so when you pull the trigger electricity
would flow from the battery through this long cable to the
motor and turn the bolt. And you could turn it clockwise or
counter-clockwise, it could also be used manually in case a bolt
was stuck just like a big torque wrench on the ground, which
means, you know, using your muscles to crank the bolt in
case it was stuck. >> RUSS: Right, we have to consider a lot
of things, and it has to be operational, it has to be used
with those big old gloves, and it, it has to be functional and
safe to use in space with no sharp edges to puncture those
gloves or your suit. >> JOHN: And each time we went up to the
telescope as Russ said, we would bring new scientific
instruments, new electronics, and that net effect is that we
reinvented the telescope and made a new observatory each time
we went to space. Allowed Hubble to help us unravel the mysteries
of the universe. Thanks Russ! >>RUSS: Okay, thanks John!
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
[SILENCE]
JOHN: There’s a tear in the glove Christy. >> OFF: There’s
probably a few. >> RUSS: There are a few! >> OFF: Terminate
EVA. You maintaining pressure John? Terminate EVA.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
>> RUSS: Can you operate this with those gloves?
[LAUGHTER]