Hubble's Life Expectancy Debated

Discovery News ^ | 08/01/03 | Irene Mona Klotz

[bedolido]

Aug. 1, 2003 — No one denies the Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most productive machines ever built, returning astronomical data that routinely reshapes our knowledge of the universe. But a controversy divides scientists and managers: pull Hubble's plug as planned in 2010, freeing money for new projects, or renew funding for the aging observatory?

"In and of itself, it'd be great to extend Hubble. But there are a number of other missions to consider and if they have to be cannibalized, it wouldn't be worth it," said Ohio State University astronomer Andrew Gould.

Hubble's fate is being debated this week at a meeting in Baltimore. A panel of independent scientists is expected to make a recommendation to NASA about Hubble's fate by Oct. 1.

The telescope was put into orbit during a 1990 space shuttle mission and has been visited by astronaut crews four times for upgrades and repairs. NASA plans one more servicing call to the telescope before it is removed from orbit.

Before the Feb. 1 Columbia accident, the space agency had been planning to dispatch a shuttle to return Hubble to Earth for display in the Smithsonian Institution's Air & Space Museum.

Anne Kinney, director of NASA's astronomy and physics division, said it wasn't worth the risk to human life to bring home a museum piece. Instead, the agency is now considering launching an unmanned rocket to the telescope to steer it home.

Some scientists pale at the thought of Hubble's demise, particularly if its replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, is not yet in orbit. The next-generation space telescope is scheduled for launch in August 2011.

Hubble life-extension supporters would like NASA to plan for a sixth servicing mission, which would include towing the observatory to a higher orbit to keep it far enough away from the fringes of Earth's atmosphere to remain at an operational altitude for several additional years.

"Hubble has had enormous benefits," Riccardo Giacconi, the former director of the Space Telescope Science Institute told the panel on Thursday. "We should try to make the very best use of what we put up there."

NASA has said extending Hubble's life will cost another $700 million, money that will have to come from other programs.

"You have to ask if the government is going to put up that kind of money for something that is 1970s technology, or are you going to want to do something new," Kinney said.

[bedolido]

[Tijeras_Slim]

Well, if Web tells what he knows about the Clintons, he'll be dead before the week is out...

Oh, this is about the telescope.

[bedolido]

Didn't Web Hubble die? or am I getting him mixed up with "whathername's" husband?

[Tijeras_Slim]

Jim McDougal was the arkancide victim. But it's tough to keep track of them all.

[djf]

Hubble is almost already passe. I saw a bit about an observatory in, I think, New Mexico that has a large setup with something called "adaptive optics". They shoot a laser in the sky, measure the distortion, and adjust the mirrors on the main scope. The pictures they showed of Saturn were many orders of magnitude better than normal ground based systems.

[biblewonk]

700 million! That is less than it would cost to build and launch a newer equivalent.

[ErnBatavia]

"Elizabeth, I feel the big one coming!"

[RonHolzwarth]

re: "Hubble is almost already passe. I saw a bit about an observatory in, I think, New Mexico that has a large setup with something called "adaptive optics". They shoot a laser in the sky, measure the distortion, and adjust the mirrors on the main scope. The pictures they showed of Saturn were many orders of magnitude better than normal ground based systems."

Problem is, that for anything out of our solar system, we would have to wait AT LEAST years, and up to THOUSANDS OF YEARS for the laser light to come back! That process will only work within our own solar system.

I do wish the Hubble would be at least boosted up in orbit, I thought it was a terrible waste when the US space station was allowed to fall, in 1978 or so, that was when the shuttle would do everything for us,,, seems to me that the Hubble is certainly worth the cost to keep it aloft for a while!

[djf]

No, no, it measures the thermal distortions in our atmosphere, and corrects for them.

[Nonstatist]

You just talking about visible light? HST has 5 State of the Art Science Instruments on board to measure UV light, watch for black holes, etc, measure the age of the Universe, etc. You cant get all that with ground based instruments

[Prodigal Son]

I wonder if NASA has tried to get any private investors to buy Hubble? It seems like the kind of toy Bill Gates might like to have.

[bedolido]

thanks for the input.