HST history ( Could the Mars Rover Technology become Military Weapo

wrote:
Furthermore, a NASA history of the Hubble[3] states
about the reasons for switching from a 3 meter main mirror to a 2.4
meter design: 'In addition, changing to a 2.4-meter mirror would lessen
fabrication costs by using manufacturing technologies developed for
military spy satellites.' "

This all gets gone into in the book "The Hubble Wars".


Not just the outer dimensions, even the optics may had some similarities
with the KH-11. The USAF (may got rumours that Perkin Elmer screwed
the grind) offered NASA (MSFC) an end to end test for free on their
own optical test stand. MSFC declined the offer. I suspect the KH-11
did not use the hyperbolic Ritchey-Chretien System but a more simple
one to grind. Thats why PE needed a special test rig they screwed in
building.

Btw, the Solar panels were not from the KH-11 but ESA. The KH-11
people did know that the ESA panels wont work, but it was launched
anyway.

It wasn't that the ESA panels were suspected of being defective at the
time, it was the fact that the type the NRO was using on their reconsats
were significantly smaller and lighter for the same power output as the
ESA ones - but their composition was classified at the time.
It still really ****ed off the HST team that the info on the panels
wasn't leaked to them.
Charles P. Vick has some "best guess" info on KH-12 he
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/...h-12-schem.htm

Pat

It was not just a matter of size but the ESA panels had a more subtle
design failure. The heat cycles from day to night side of orbit caused
them to flap, to spring up and vibrate. I dont know the right english words.
Its not mentioned on Wikipedia. It was a thermal mechanical problem
inherent with the design they chosed.

Each spring up caused a vibration far beyond the pointing needs. Until
it was dumped out HST could not observe. That reduced the daily
observation time considerably. In "Hubble Wars" (IIRC) a very restricted
"conference" with people from NASA HST and a group from the "black world"
was mentioned. This guys (I called slightly wrong "KH-11 people" above)
were from CIA or at least worked under that control.

It was a presentation of the whole HST project so far (what year?) but
the CIA guys were mostly silent. At the moment they got the ESA solar
panels presented one guy said: "That will not work". Nothing more. IIRC
there were no ESA people (allowed) in the room.

The desgin failure was in such a subtle way that NASA and ESA missed
it so far. But this guy saw it immediately. I`m certain the CIA or NRO
had faced the very same problem before. Thats the only way he could have
known it. But NASA got no more hint what may be the problem and the
design went through ESA and NASA reviews without seeing it.

I dont know whether NASA/ESA this time had a fast frigerating/heating
chamber to test this large panels. Or it may come up only in weightlessnes.
With no hint and no official "Design wont work!" they had a too hard way
to find it.

I doubt that the CIA guys were already aware of the screwed mirror and
a planned servicing mission. Without the mirror problem the panels would
still be a serious problem worth an immediate repair mission. So the
CIA open eyed let NASA and ESA together drive against the wall. The US
secret space programs got about 10 to 100 times the founding of NASA
science. But they were not willing to allow even a small spin off to
NASA. Just a few words under 4 eyes may have helped: "I had a dream..."


SENECA

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