AAS: astronauts not robots should fix Hubble

The Register ^ | 01/19/05 | Lucy Sherriff

[KevinDavis]

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has added its voice to calls for a manned mission to carry out essential maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope. The AAS endorsed the National Research Council's recommendation that the telescope be serviced by astronauts using the Space Shuttle rather than NASA's suggested robotic mission.

[KevinDavis]

I agree, however here is my take on this whole Hubble thing. If these people really cared about the Hubble, have them form a company to run the Hubble, charge for it's use and then pay who ever to have it maintained. Case closed.

[KevinDavis]

[Flightdeck]

I guess manned space flight is useful after all. Not that I had any doubts.

[Nonstatist]

The robotic mission is being worked , as we speak. The odds may be longish, but they were also fairly long for SM-1, and that worked perfectly.

[RadioAstronomer]

I agree with the AAS.

[ProudVet77]

Good idea. I'd put a few bucks towards it. Be a great enterprise for someone to startup.

[KevinDavis]

There will be a profit...

[Simmy2.5]

I will always prefer if, say, a Burt Rutan took over the job from the government. Anything to shrink the government (in most cases) is fine by me. Still, IF the only ones allowed to work on Hubble would be the government, I will support a manned mission over a robotic one since, IMO, Hubble should be saved and be of continued use for years to come. Yes, there is that James Webb Telescope that's going up in a year or so. But from what I heard, it is NOT a replacement to Hubble (while it does something better, an infared telescope, and not an optical one like Hubble, we will NOT see the amazing Nebulas or far away galaxies that made Hubble famous). Given what Hubble is STILL doing, saving it with one, ONE last human service mission should be worth it.

[Honcho Bongs]

I thought maybe this was an Astronauts Union issue.

[Lawdoc]

Paging Storey Musgrave.....

[CHICAGOFARMER]

I'll try it.

[Charlotte Corday]

I wonder what the numbers would be to build and launch a Hubble replacement compared to a space shuttle flight (the latter is probably going to be $1 billion plus, based on NASA's shuttle program budget divided by 2-4 flights per year)

Have you ever heard Burt Rutan discuss NASA? He always pronounces it "Nay-Say".

[KevinDavis]

No I haven't...

[SFConservative]

The successor to Hubble is the James Webb Space Telescope which is already in development and is supposed to be launched in 2011. It is primarily an infrared instrument.

Its ultimate cost is of course a guess but right now it looks like $1.6-2.0B, which given the nature of things will probably reach $3.0B by 2011. A manned Hubble repair mission has been estimated as low as $0.7B and as high as $1.6B. The other factor to throw into the equation is 4-5 years of unemployment compensation for thousands of astronomers and cosmologists or for the McDonald's employees whose jobs they will take.

[RightWhale]

The AAS has no opinion on robotic versus manned missions. Ignore them.