“The art of aerospace engineering is a matter of seeing around corners,” said NASA thermal analyst Jodi Turk. In the case of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory,
“The art of aerospace engineering is a matter of seeing around corners,” said NASA thermal analyst Jodi Turk. In the case of NASA’s, marking its 25th anniversary in space this year, some of those corners proved to be as far as 80,000 miles away and a quarter-century in the future.
“How much technology from 1999 is still in use today?” said Chandra researcher Douglas Swartz. “We don’t use the same camera equipment, computers, or phones from that era. But one technological success – Chandra – is still going strong, and still so powerful that it can read a stop sign from 12 miles away.”
“There was a lot of excitement and a lot of challenges – but we met them and conquered them,” said Marshall project engineer David Hood, who joined the Chandra development effort in 1988. Chandra is a case in point. The team has automated some of Chandra’s operations for efficiency. They also closely monitor key elements of the spacecraft, such as its thermal protection system, which have degraded as anticipated over time, due to the punishing effects of the space environment.
An artist’s illustration depicting NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in flight, with a vivid star field behind it. Chandra’s solar panels are deployed and its camera “eye” open on the cosmos.The work also provides a one-of-a-kind teaching opportunity, Turk said.
General Marshall Space Flight Center
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