Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph

Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
NASA/KSC · Public domain · source
Name	Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
Mission	Hubble Space Telescope
Type	Spectrograph
Operator	NASA
Manufacturer	Goddard Space Flight Center
Launch	24 April 1990
Status	Decommissioned

Contents

Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph was a high-dispersion ultraviolet spectrograph installed on the Hubble Space Telescope during its 1990 deployment, designed and built by teams at Goddard Space Flight Center and operated by NASA in collaboration with institutions such as Ball Aerospace and academic partners including Johns Hopkins University and University of Colorado Boulder. It provided high-resolution spectroscopy across far-ultraviolet and near-ultraviolet bands, enabling investigations by researchers affiliated with organizations like Space Telescope Science Institute, European Space Agency, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, and Princeton University. The instrument played a role in programs involving principal investigators from Harvard University, Yale University, University of Cambridge, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago.

Overview

The spectrograph served as one of several axial instruments on Hubble Space Telescope alongside Wide Field and Planetary Camera, Faint Object Camera, Faint Object Spectrograph, and later Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Its design emphasized resolving power comparable to ground-based echelle spectrographs used at observatories like Palomar Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Keck Observatory, and Very Large Telescope facilities, while exploiting ultraviolet windows inaccessible from Mauna Kea, Cerro Paranal, La Silla Observatory, and Mount Wilson Observatory. Funding and oversight involved agencies and programs such as NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, National Science Foundation, and review panels with members from American Astronomical Society, Royal Astronomical Society, and National Academy of Sciences.

The instrument employed optical components and detectors developed with expertise from contractors including Harris Corporation, RCA, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and scientific groups at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Core elements included a vacuum-ultraviolet optical bench, echelle gratings akin to those used by teams at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and microchannel plate detectors with photocathode coatings whose development paralleled work at Bell Labs, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. Electronics design borrowed heritage from projects at Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, while thermal control strategies referenced techniques from spacecraft like Voyager 2, Galileo, Ulysses, and International Ultraviolet Explorer. The instrument interfaces conformed to standards used by Space Telescope Science Institute operations and mission planning protocols of NASA.

Operational planning integrated scheduling systems maintained by Space Telescope Science Institute and observing proposals reviewed by committees including members from European Southern Observatory, Royal Astronomical Society, and American Astronomical Society. Early mission anomalies led to servicing missions coordinated with crews trained at Johnson Space Center and flight hardware processed at Kennedy Space Center. Notable servicing and instrument maintenance episodes involved astronauts associated with STS-61, STS-125, and operations managed by teams from Mission Control Center and Marshall Space Flight Center. Observing campaigns targeted objects observed previously by Copernicus (spacecraft), International Ultraviolet Explorer, and GALEX, while follow-up programs coordinated with observatories such as Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, Kepler, James Webb Space Telescope, and ground-based arrays including Atacama Large Millimeter Array constituents.

The spectrograph produced high-resolution spectra that advanced studies of stellar atmospheres, interstellar medium, and extragalactic absorption systems undertaken by researchers from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Carnegie Institution for Science, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and Observatoire de Paris. Results included precise measurements of chemical abundances and radial velocities used in analyses by teams affiliated with University of Oxford, University of Toronto, University of Michigan, and Pennsylvania State University. Investigations of quasars and active galactic nuclei linked to collaborations with European Southern Observatory, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. Studies of planetary atmospheres and comets referenced comparative data from missions like Galileo, Voyager 2, Mars Global Surveyor, and Rosetta (spacecraft), with investigators from Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Southwest Research Institute contributing.

Calibration procedures were developed in coordination with standards maintained by Space Telescope Science Institute and instrument teams at Goddard Space Flight Center, using reference sources traceable to laboratories like National Institute of Standards and Technology and techniques refined at Caltech. Data processing pipelines integrated software concepts from projects at European Space Agency, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and National Optical Astronomy Observatory, with reduction algorithms influenced by methods used by scientists at University of Cambridge, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Columbia University. Archival storage and distribution worked through systems operated by Space Telescope Science Institute, interoperable with archives at Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, NASA/IPAC, and data centers supported by European Space Agency and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Following its operational lifetime the instrument was decommissioned as part of instrument reconfigurations on Hubble Space Telescope and superseded by instruments such as Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and later spectrographs on missions like Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, influencing designs at institutions including Stanford University, University of Arizona, and University of Colorado Boulder. Its legacy persists in archival datasets used by researchers at Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, and international teams at Max Planck Society and CNRS, and informed instrument development for missions proposed to NASA and European Space Agency. The spectrograph's contributions continue to be cited in studies supported by funding from National Science Foundation, NASA, and multinational consortia including European Research Council.

Category:Spacecraft instruments