STScI Annual Report 2002: A Living Mission

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profiles Melissa McGrath Melissa McGrath joined the Institute as a staff scientist in the Science Programs Division in 1992 and currently heads the new Community Missions Office. Melissa was born and raised in Grand Island, Nebraska, and had only passing interest in astronomy until taking a winter-term course entitled “Intelligent Life in the Universe” at her undergraduate alma mater, Mount Holyoke College. Invited speakers in the course included Cyril Ponnamperuma and Carl Sagan, and students in the class were invited to a reception at the college President's house to meet Dr. Sagan. The course and speakers provided the inspiration Melissa needed to change her classes for the upcoming semester to include introductory physics and astronomy courses. She has never looked back nor regretted her choice to switch from being a French major to studying astronomy. After graduating from Mount Holyoke, Melissa went on to graduate school at the University of Virginia, where she pursued research on starburst galaxies for her master’s thesis and in planetary science for her Ph.D. She then moved to a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, where she continued work in planetary science and became a space observer, eventually leading JHU’s extensive and long-running research programs using the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite to study outer planet atmospheres and satellites. At the Institute Melissa has served in a wide variety of positions over the last ten years, encompassing most aspects of the Hubble front- and back-end ground systems. She was initially a planning scientist in the Science Program Division, where she moved quickly to branch manager, and then happily out of a management position to better pursue research and tenure. She was a member of the initial Continuous Process Improvement team (HURT— Hubble Undergoing Radical Transformation) led by Mark Johnston, which led to the formation of PRESTO— 6 new manager profile continued on page 56
The astronomical community and the Institute are indebted to the dedicated NASA staff at headquarters and the centers who make these servicing missions possible and do such a wonderful job of upgrading Hubble. Hubble Made Even Better than Before — Rodger Doxsey news NASA serviced the Hubble Space Telescope in March 2002, and it is now a better observatory than ever before. The Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 6:22 AM local time on March 1, carrying a crew of seven astronauts and a payload bay full of equipment destined for Hubble. The crew rendezvoused with the telescope two days later and firmly berthed it to the servicing structure in the payload bay. Over the next five days, the crew successfully completed a series of five space walks to replace and upgrade important components of the observatory. They installed a new camera, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), and a mechanical cooler that revived the Near Infrared and Multi- Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). In addition to these substantial upgrades to Hubble’s scientific capability, the astronauts installed new solar arrays, a replacement power control unit, and a replacement reaction wheel assembly. The crew then ‘launched’ Hubble again and returned to earth. After Hubble was deployed, the operations staffs at the Institute and Goddard Space Flight Center tested the new equipment, calibrated the new instruments, and returned the telescope to normal science operations. Everything is working as expected—or better, as in the case of the flat-panel design of the new solar arrays, which completely eliminated the thermally-induced pointing jitter at day-night transitions. � STScI AR 02 | A Living Mission news 7
Page 1 and 2: Space Telescope Science Institute A
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Page 10 and 11: Science with ACS: A New View — Ad
Page 12 and 13: profiles Marty Durkin Marty Durkin
Page 14 and 15: Riccardo Giacconi receiving his Nob
Page 16 and 17: profiles Bonnie Eisenhamer Bonnie E
Page 18 and 19: profiles Lisa Wolff Lisa Wolff join
Page 20 and 21: 18 news IDTL personnel and detector
Page 22 and 23: 20 science essays The Lessons of De
Page 24 and 25: 22 science essays Bar-Driven Evolut
Page 26 and 27: 24 science essays Molecular Hydroge
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Page 30 and 31: 28 organization Steven Beckwith Dep
Page 32 and 33: 30 organization Mario Livio Antonel
Page 34 and 35: 32 organization Chris Blades Bill S
Page 36 and 37: 34 teams Teams Outside The TREASURY
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Page 42 and 43: goals 40 goals Goal 1. Hubble is ou
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Page 48 and 49: 46 achievements Provide user suppor
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Melissa McGrath (cont’d) Project
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science publications 58 publication
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60 publications Griffin, R. G. and
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62 publications O’Dea, C. P., de
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64 publications Suchkov, A. A., Sch
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