Blueshift - September 30, 2009

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Sara Mitchell:  Welcome to the September 30th, 2009 episode of Blueshift, 
brought to you from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.  Earlier this 
year, the world watched as astronauts made one more servicing mission to 
the Hubble Space Telescope.  On a series of space walks, they repaired and 
replaced Hubble's hardware, making it as good as new.  Or really, even 
better than new.

One of the astronauts aboard this historic mission was Dr. John Grunsfeld.  
And he's not only an astronaut, he's also an astrophysicist.  So here at 
Blueshift, we were interested in talking to him about this dual role.

I was fortunate to speak with Dr. Grunsfeld on the phone earlier this 
month and we talked about Hubble, astrophysics, and more.


Sara:  To the public, the Hubble Space Telescope is a national treasure 
and it's a camera to them that just takes these beautiful pictures.  But 
what does the Hubble mean to you as both an astronaut and an 
astrophysicist?

John Grunsfeld:  Well the Hubble is probably the most productive 
scientific instrument ever created by people.  And it's given us the 
ability to answer such fundamental questions about how the Universe began, 
the evolution of the Universe, our neighborhood in the solar system.  So 
many fundamental questions that people have asked just from looking up at 
the skies.  And that appeals to the biggest, broadest audience possible, 
basically thinking humans, that it really has become an icon for science.  
And at the same time, in my lifetime, it's really allowed astronomers to 
overturn and kind of learn about the Universe for the first time, that it 
really is just a phenomenal star in our Universe of scientific 
instruments.

Sara:  Have you used the Hubble for any of your research?

John:  I've been in collaborations in gamma-ray burst research that has 
used Hubble.  And this fall we're hoping, if everything works out, to 
actually use the new Wide Field Camera 3 to observer the Moon.  And I'm 
very excited about that.  We're going to point Hubble at the crater Tycho 
and Hubble is uniquely suited because of its ultraviolet capability.  
Being above the atmosphere, the ultraviolet light doesn't get through the 
atmosphere, which is a good thing for us, but a bad thing for astronomy.  
And so Hubble has got the best instruments, with this new Wide Field 
Camera, to study the Moon, which is something I've always been fascinated 
with.

Sara:  Your work in manned space flight has almost certainly been part of 
NASA's most prominent and visible work.  But you're also, your background 
is really in something that's one of the least visible fields, which would 
be astrophysics.  So what's the value of astrophysics.  Why should we do 
it?  Why do you do it?

John:  Well, astrophysics is really about answering fundamental questions 
that we all ask.  You know, from birth on, when we really start thinking, 
you know, we want to know where did we come from, how did we get here?  
And these are deep questions that humans ask.  Who knows, maybe that is 
the deciding line between what we consider conscious, intelligent beings 
and not, is whether they can question their existence.  And when we do 
question our existence, one of the ways to try and understand that is 
through astronomy and astrophysics.  Because astronomy and astrophysics 
answers the questions of how did the Universe come to be the way it looks? 
How did the chemical elements form?  How did planetary systems form?  How 
did the Earth form?  These are very, very fundamental questions that 
enquiring minds want to know.  Astrophysics provides many of those 
answers.  It's just amazing to me that we live in such a rich time in 
astrophysics.  We have the tools, not just Hubble, but a whole fleet of 
astronomy and astrophysics satellites and tools to be able to answer these 
very fundamental questions that span from the whole size of the Universe 
down to what may be the actual structure of space time.

Sara:  So, what's next for you?

John:  Oh, good question.  There are lots of opportunities out there.  
I'm very interested in, now that we've got Hubble for the very first time 
in the best shape of its life.  Its got five working scientific 
instruments, all of which are corrected for the spherical aberration in 
the mirror.  So in a sense, Hubble is just beginning its mission of 
discovery.  And so I'm very interested in seeing what kind of science 
comes out of Hubble and hopefully to participate in it.

Sara:  The last thing I wanted to ask you about, we actually did a story 
earlier this year, while you guys were up there, about the other 
telescopes that were on board the mission that both you and Mike Massimino 
brought.  So you brought along a 200 year old telescope made by Jesse 
Ramsden.

John:  Yup.

Sara:  What was your connection to that telescope?

John:  My connection is really to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.  And 
that's where I went to my first astronomy course when I was in high 
school.  And my grandfather was the architect of the Adler Planetarium 
back in 1930.  It was the first planetarium in the western hemisphere.  
And so my family kind of got me there and then once I was there I was 
hooked on astronomy.  And they have a rather in depth collection of 
antique and historical astronomical instruments.  Not just telescopes, but 
astrolabes and other things.  And so that telescope is a new addition to 
their collection.  And it's been not only used for astronomical purposes 
on Earth, but of course in Earth's orbit.  And then we have one of the 
replicas, as you know, of Galileo's telescope, one of the three replicas 
that was made with all of the period materials and by the same techniques 
that Galileo used to optimize that for astronomy, if you can call it 
optimized.  Massimino and I actually looked through it and Galileo was a 
very patient observer.  That's about what I can say.

Sara:  I really appreciate having a little bit of your time.

John:  Oh, my pleasure.


Sara:  Here at Blueshift, we're interested in those fundamental questions 
- how the Universe began, what's out there, and how we fit into the big 
picture.  And we look forward to seeing more impressive discoveries from 
Hubble for years to come.  As a bonus, we also asked Dr. Grunsfeld about 
his screensaver.  Here's what he had to say.

John:  Right now it's a picture of the Earth limb and then, the bottom of 
the screen is the Earth limb, and the top three quarters of the screen is 
black, punctuated by about a one inch long Hubble Space Telescope.  And 
it's a picture that I took when we were leaving Hubble on STS-109.


Sara:  You can find that image, and more information from this episode, on 
our website at universe.nasa.gov/Blueshift.  You can also follow us on 
Twitter @NASABlueshift, where we tweet about news, updates, contests, and 
more.

We'll be back in mid-October with another behind-the-scenes look at the 
world of NASA astrophysics.  Until then, this is Sara Mitchell, bringing 
the Universe closer to you with Blueshift.

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