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> My grandfather worked on the Hubble's mirror - the part with all the controversy. It was, simultaneously, both what he was most proud of and most ashamed. I
by petertodd 5y ago
> My grandfather worked on the Hubble's mirror - the part with all the controversy. It was, simultaneously, both what he was most proud of and most ashamed.
I think a simple way to explain what your grandfather should feel proud of, is they documented the construction process so thoroughly that they were able to _precisely_ figure out what they did wrong, and fix it, on their first try!
- CWuestefeld 5y agoThat's a really positive way to frame it. Thanks for the perspective.
- chasd00 5y agoFrom what I recall the mirror was built to spec, it was the spec that was wrong not the mirror. Do I have that backwards?
- abestic9 5y agoThe mirror was precisely polished "to spec" with custom-built equipment that was assembled incorrectly. They correctly saw the distortion issue on the ground with the conventional kit, but rejected the result as erroneous because it tested fine with the "better" testing equipment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#Origin_of_the_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#Origin_...
- NickNameNick 5y agoI thought that the instrument used to measure the curvature of the mirror was mis-calibrated.
- ArnoVW 5y agoYes. A tiny area of paint was chipped. Unfortunately that meant that the distance was increased by the distance of the layer of paint.