Telescope dazzles some, leaves others in the dark

Hubble's troubles limit many scientists' access

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Despite a series of flaws, the Hubble Space Telescope has started producing unique images of deep space, to the delight of some astronomers.

But problems with the $6 billion system have virtually shut out work by other scientists, who fear that discouraging delays will drive away young scientists.

The telescope, bearing four different instruments, was launched last summer from a space shuttle into orbit 330 nautical miles above the Earth and is expected to operate 15 years.

Problems were found soon after launch. The mirror, billed as the most perfect ever made, was ground to the wrong prescription. As a result, some star images are blobs instead of points. Mounts for the two energy-producing solar wings are too flexible, causing the instrument to shake from temperature changes. And guidance sensors are not exactly aligned, making the location of targets difficult.

Study of these problems and devising fixes from the ground, by altering computer control programs, has eaten away at time planned for closely scheduled observing programs.

While most scientists speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference here say they have been able to get some data - and, in some cases, striking results - others have been virtually shut out so far.

Laurence Frederick of the University of Virginia has waited for years to work with the orbiting telescope, and said his experience has had a negative effect on student scientists.

"It is very difficult to get young kids of 20 or 21 interested in this because they see me sitting around for so long," he said.

Frederick said a doctoral candidate he is advising expected to have his work completed by 1993. But delays caused the student to give up and look for another project, he said.

Yet others have been delighted with Hubble's results, including John Brandt of the University of Colorado at Boulder, whose instrument maps slices of the visible and invisible light beams.

Brandt presented studies of two stars which are pouring out vastly more material than the sun. The studies would be impossible to do from the ground.

"The high resolution is there," he said, "it is ready to use, and nobody could be happier than I am."

James Westphal of the California Institute of Technology displayed images of the great Orion Nebula, which is visible to the naked eye each night as a smudge in the southern sky.

Westphal said a rather dull, featureless area of the nebula was selected for early testing of the Wide Field Camera, an instrument particularly harmed by the telescope's problems.

The resulting image was anything but dull and uninteresting. Fantastic details appeared, including a host of objects which had rarely been seen before.

He noted, however, that until the telescope is repaired, now set for November 1993, images will not be as crisp as expected.

The five-year delay in launching Hubble, due to the Challenger explosion and other shuttle problems, also may have affected some of the instruments.

Richard Harms of Applied Research Corp. of Landover, Md., said the ability of the Faint Object Spectrograph to detect ultraviolet light may have been damaged simply through a buildup of oxidation on the instrument's aluminum mirror.