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Nose To the Grindstone
Under extreme time constraints, the members of the Hubble
Project put in large amounts of overtime to bring the
NICMOS Cooling System (NCS) to life.
The Three Parts
A diagram of the 3 main components needed to build and
test the NCS.
Summary
The
Hubble Project team had less than 14 months to build
and test the NICMOS Cooling System (NCS) for flight.
Most of Hubble's instruments had 5 to 10 years before
they were installed in space. In order to accomplish
this challenging task the Hubble team was going
to have to work fast, efficiently, cooperatively,
and put in very long hours.
NCS's first flight into space would be a test itself.
NASA requires any type of novel technology such
as the NCS to be "space qualified" by
operating it in orbit.
The NCS was split into different components to be
built by different contractors across the US. The
most important part would be the NICMOS Cryo-Cooler
(NCC), the heart of the NCS. But along with that,
a radiator and capillary loop to expel heat generated
by the NCC was devised. Finally, a surrogate or
mock-up of NICMOS would need to be constructed to
test the NCS. Other electrical components were also
developed at Goddard.
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