Hubble 3D: Deep Space Page #3

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Ah, what a beautiful view.

It's just a wondrous sight

to see our planet in its entirety.

It's a gift that astronauts

have been given.

Day four:
the installation

of the critical Wide Field Camera.

Right off the bat,

trouble for John and Drew.

One stuck bolt.

The start of the spacewalk

had been a little bit delayed.

We were kind of up against

the clock to begin with.

And then running into that bolt.

I'm thinking, you know,

"We are right at the edge here.

Our number-one science objective would

be out the window on the first spacewalk."

First roller's going in.

Bring your down-- End down slightly.

With a lot of perseverance,

the Wide Field Camera is finally installed.

Okay, that's good.

Day five brings the delicate task...

...of replacing

the three Rate Sensor Units...

...known as RSUs.

If you're gonna be an astronaut,

you gotta get used to the acronyms.

Tiny cameras

inside the spacewalkers' helmets...

...give us a unique over-shoulder view

as they work.

The new RSU is attached

to a giant toothpick called a pick stick.

Very carefully,

Bueno guides it into position.

One bump against the star tracker

could cripple the telescope forever.

One down, two more to go.

For the next one,

Mass goes in backwards.

Okay, your feet are on the

boot plate here, left foot a little bit left.

- Okay, so, I'll take your right foot in first.

- Okay.

Right toe's coming in.

Uh-- Heel inboard.

Okay.

By nightfall, they're in trouble.

Anything sticking out the back of that?

I don't know.

This RSU just will not go in.

Coming off the plate.

Doesn't feel seated.

I don't think it is.

I'm hitting something on the bottom

right now. I can't come down anymore.

See if you can drive it, it might work.

Now go left a little bit,

just little, little, little.

Little bit more, little bit more right.

Little more, roll right.

Okay, now come, come in.

After hours of exhausting attempts...

...in minus 200 degree temperatures....

- I've definitely got it.

- Excellent. Do the next bolt.

- Yeah, that bolt is in.

- Success at last.

Great job, Mike.

Houston, Atlantis.

We're ecstatically able to report...

- ...the RSU-3R connectors are mated.

- Whoo!

Copy that and nice job by all.

Okay, Mass, Bueno.

EVA-2, what do you think?

- It was like-- Go ahead.

- No, go, you go.

It was like a heavyweight fight.

Oh, my gosh.

RSUs, you love them?

- I love them now that they're over.

- Love them to death!

- It's a good one to have behind us.

- What name would you give...

- ...the three RSUs?

- Larry, Curly and Moe!

Okay, you guys know the drill,

let's remove COSTAR.

Coming out slow.

We use lots of tethers...

...tethers for everything,

because stuff in space floats.

You don't wanna lose your stuff.

And you don't wanna lose yourself either.

This is a lot tighter than-- Heh.

COSTAR's, I think, the tightest instrument.

We're really dependent

on our spacesuit to keep us alive.

We don't wanna get a rip

or a tear in our suit...

...because outside of our spacesuit

is space, and in space there's no air.

There's nothing to keep us alive.

And the part of our suit

that's most vulnerable is our gloves.

Drew, I have a warning for you.

There's a possible finger pinch hazard...

...when you're stowing COSTAR

in the aft fixture, so be careful.

- Thanks, Mike.

- You're stuck inside of that suit.

It's not quite Barneys New York.

It's good, but it doesn't come

with its own restroom or cafeteria.

Continue down.

Copy, continuing down.

Top down, and left.

Well, I just finished

shooting an IMAX scene...

...and so I'm done with that.

So I wanna get a little exercise in...

...before I shoot my next scene...

...so this is a little stress relief here

on the middeck.

Most of Hubble's instruments

were designed for repair in space.

But not the Advanced Camera

for Surveys.

When its power supply failed...

...the only hope was to remove and replace

fragile circuit boards inside the camera.

They were held captive

by dozens of tiny screws.

For John and Drew, it's like performing

brain surgery with oven mitts.

It takes all the focus I can muster.

I have 32 tiny screws to remove.

- Number 3 is out.

- Copy, Number 3.

And so I have a Zen approach

to doing the task...

...where I only think about the one specific

task that I'm doing, the one specific screw.

And when that screw's out,

I move to the next screw.

Number 5 is out.

Okay, copy.

And eventually I'll get

to the last one, and then I'll be done.

There's no point thinking about

how many screws I have ahead...

...or how many I've completed,

it'll just be the one screw.

- Number 11 is out.

- Copy, 11. Great.

Removing the razor-sharp

circuit boards is a dangerous business.

We learned what to avoid touching...

...because if you make a significant cut

in your glove through the bladder...

...the oxygen will leak out of your suit

and you will die.

- Card 1 is out.

- That looks great, John. Nice job.

Somehow I don't think brain surgeons...

...go, "Yahoo!"

when they pull something out.

When they came in, they were

tired, they were exhausted, thirsty...

...but they were getting out of their suits

with a sense of accomplishment.

Now the sad news was that

once they relaxed for...

...oh, about five seconds...

...we had to put them back to work

getting everything ready for the next day.

- Drew, what are you doing?

- I'm using the tape.

Is there a reason why you

have sunglasses on in the middeck...

- ...where there's no sun?

- They look cool.

Ah. That's my man.

On day seven,

Mass and Bueno run into a big problem.

Doesn't look good, Drew.

Before we can do any of this,

all this fancy stuff...

...we had to get off this big handrail

that was in the way.

I don't think it's coming out.

It was a night pass. It was dark out...

...which added to the trauma.

It seemed kind of cold and lonely out there.

I couldn't wake up out of

this nightmare that was occurring.

After hours of failed attempts...

...the flight controllers finally tell them,

"Just break it off."

Think we're gonna be able

to get this, Drew?

I do actually.

I think once he busts off the handrail...

...the rest is gonna go smooth as silk.

- Okay, Mass.

- Here we go.

It's off!

Easy, easy, Mike. Just real easy, okay?

- There we go.

- I got it.

Looked like it all stayed intact

with the tape.

Yeah, it did. I don't think

we even scattered any debris.

- I see STIS in front of me.

- Awesome.

Now there's lots of planets

out there in other solar systems.

One of the cool things about STIS is it can

analyze the atmospheres of those planets.

What everybody's hoping

is maybe we find something similar...

...to what we have here on Earth.

And then we hit the jackpot.

Guess what, it fits.

That's awesome.

For Drew, it's one more spacewalk to go.

And Mass, I do have a tether.

In case it floats away.

He and John are replacing

a Fine Guidance Sensor.

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