Doubt overshadows Hubble's 15th (Hubble telescope nearing its end?)

BBC News ^ | 04/25/05

[TigerLikesRooster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4480813.stm

Last Updated: Monday, 25 April, 2005, 13:54 GMT 14:54 UK

 

Doubt overshadows Hubble's 15th

 

A billowing tower of cold gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula. (Image: Nasa, Esa and the Hubble Heritage Team)

The tower in the Eagle Nebula may be a giant incubator for newborn stars

	Hubble is the best mission in Nasa's fleet Steven Beckwith, STScI

Astronomers are this week celebrating the 15th year in space for the Hubble space telescope - perhaps the most successful astronomy mission ever.

But the celebrations are overshadowed by uncertainty over the future of the orbiting observatory.

Nasa's 2006 budget, announced in February, effectively killed off the telescope, but the US space agency's new chief says it may yet be saved.

The Hubble team has released two special images to mark the occasion.

They are new views of two of the best-known objects Hubble has observed.

One is of the spiral galaxy M51 (also known as the whirlpool galaxy). The other shows the Eagle Nebula, a tall, dense tower of gas being sculpted by ultraviolet light from a group of massive, hot stars.

"Hubble is the best mission in Nasa's fleet," commented Steven Beckwith, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, US, which operates Hubble.

"It's producing beautiful science that the public loves and it makes us all look great," he told the BBC News website.

Major discoveries

Without servicing of its fading batteries and gyroscopes, the observatory will probably stop taking pictures by 2007 or 2008. To the outrage of many astronomers, Nasa's previous administrator Sean O'Keefe cancelled all plans to repair the telescope.

But now Hubble has been thrown a lifeline: the agency's new chief, Mike Griffin, has pledged to re-visit the decision.

	M51 (the whirlpool galaxy). (Image: Nasa/Esa/Hubble Heritage Team) The whirlpool galaxy's curving arms are home to new stars

Speaking to the BBC News website before the appointment of Dr Griffin as Nasa administrator, Dr Beckwith said: "[Hubble] helps science, it helps other missions and it helps Nasa. So I would hope [Nasa's new administrator] could re-open the question of shuttle-based servicing or robotic servicing - either one."

Since it was launched on 24 April 1990, Hubble has produced over 700,000 images of the Universe. There is a long list of scientific achievements made by scientists using the telescope.

Hubble has helped astronomers calculate the age of the Universe (13.7 billion years old), has helped confirm the existence of dark energy and has gathered evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.

[Erik Latranyi]

...nor is there anything better on the drawing boards.

What's the rush? Anxious to spend taxpayer money? Afraid the galaxy will go away or change rapidly?

Let's analyze what Hubble has collected (my understanding is that 80%+ of the pictures taken have not even been looked at) before we build the next generation.

You never know, perhaps we will find something in those pictures that would point the direction for the next space telescope.

[RadioAstronomer]

What's the rush? Anxious to spend taxpayer money? Afraid the galaxy will go away or change rapidly?

As a matter of fact, yes.

For example, if the tools had not been in place for SN1987A, we would have lost a possibly unique view into distance calculations of the universe itself. There are once in a lifetime (sometimes once ever) events that would be missed.

And no I am not trying to "spend" money. Keeping Hubble alive will save money. Think of how much it will cost to replace it.

[poindexters brother]

My understanding of the HST situation is that it isn't a matter of money.

There is simply no way to fix it right now. The shuttle is grounded and until that breaks loose, there is no mechanism short of a new manned space program to get an astronaut up there to replace the gyros and other mechanisms that need replacing.

TM

[RadioAstronomer]

There is simply no way to fix it right now. The shuttle is grounded and until that breaks loose, there is no mechanism short of a new manned space program to get an astronaut up there to replace the gyros and other mechanisms that need replacing.

The argument by some (not me BTW), is that even after NASA starts flying again, a mission to Hubble will be too dangerous.

(No space station to use as a "life boat" if a Shuttle is damaged on ascent)