Is the Hubble Space Telescope Worth Saving?

Is the Hubble Space Telescope Worth Saving?

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In light of the most recent glitch on the Hubble Space Telescope, a serious equipment failure that means the observatory is unable to send data back to Earth, some are beginning to wonder: Is Hubble still worth saving?

The answer, according to many scientists, is yes.

The failure of a device called the Side A Science Data Formatter, used to send images and other data from Hubble back to Earth, is a problem, but likely one that can be fixed.

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Related News Links:
www.nasaspaceflight.com
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www.baltimoresun.com

I most certainly hold the optimistic view that the Hubble Space Telescope will not only be repaired, but that it will continues to provide us with some of the most fascinating Space Images known to mankind. The current Space Shuttle Mission to Hubble, STS-125, which was scheduled for Lift-off on October 14th, 2008, will now be delayed until February 2009. The only redundancy for now is to Launch STS-126 Endeavour (OV-105) this November, and thus keep STS-125 Atlantis (OV-104) on Pad A as the back-up in case a "Rescue Mission" becomes necessary.

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Originally posted by TheAgentNineteen
The only redundancy for now is to Launch STS-126 Endeavour (OV-105) this November, and thus keep STS-125 Atlantis (OV-104) on Pad A as the back-up in case a "Rescue Mission" becomes necessary.

Why would they keep atlantis as a rescue ship, endeavour is going to the space station and they can repair any problem of the shuttle from the sapce station itself as they have support of the station, but hubble mission is different, it doesnt have any support nearby and hence the rescue mission as back up.

And back to your question, yes I think it is a waste of money, this is the fourth servicing mission to the hubble and the money spent on the srevicing missions would have been more that the ones spent in creating the actual telescope itself.

They should have decommisioned it and launched another telescope with the modern technology five years back, but a replacement for hubble is already ready, the JWST.

Oh Hell Yeah!

We need the Hubble. It's the only telescope of it's kind. The new one is only looking in the Infrared Spectrum. Though that's cool, who can deny the sheer majesty of the Hubble Images!

I hope it's still taking happy snaps of the universe when I'm a grand daddy - and man - that's decades away!

IRM

I accept that JWST will explore only in IR, but the visible wavelength of light does not show most of the universe at all, it in the IR, UV, Radio & gamma wavelength does the universe show its true self.

I thought Nasa was going to replace that old thing.

I have seen a news article about 3 years ago saying hubble telescope is reaching the end of it's service year. The article showed Nasa having a meeting to figure out if they should replace it which they agreed to start on another telescope.

I am just wondering I thought they were to replace hubble telescope with a better one.

I think Nasa should make a new telescope but this time they should design it in a way they could easily make upgrades to it.

I have heard they are working on a telescope that supposed to have a better lens magnifying power.

I don't know how true it is but I would say that it's time to make another telescope and make it easy to upgrade the system so this new telescope will last longer.

I say if you aren't going to repair the Hubble you had damn well better make a telescope better than it. The Hubble to me a national, even a world treasure, it has brought us the most beautiful pictures many of us have ever or will ever see.

I say scrap it the whole space thing is a big waste of time and money this money could be spent better on the bail out that is were we need it.

Its time to just stop all these unnecessary distractions space is just a load of rocks and of no consequence.

Originally posted by yellowcard
I say if you aren't going to repair the Hubble you had damn well better make a telescope better than it. The Hubble to me a national, even a world treasure, it has brought us the most beautiful pictures many of us have ever or will ever see.

Yellowcard-very well said
The Hubble photographs,including the mindboggling ´Deep field image´are truly humbling.
Perhaps it should be mandatory for schoolchildren (and some adults) to see them.
Cheers Karl
P.S. Pic featured at link underneath.


[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

Which is in a higher earth orbit the ISS or the Hubble?

Why cant they build a new telescope and attach it to the ISS so maintenance is less of an issue?

M

reply to post by masawa



That's not a bad idea. They should make a room in the ISS so if they need to upgrade it or fix it they can have it drop down into the room big enough space in the room to fit the telescope and the people that can easily walk around it.

This would cut repair costs since they don't need a shuttle or a craft to go out and fix the thing.

I think it's time to retire the hubble telescope and make a better telescope maybe make a telescope take HD pics. They should also make the new one easy to upgrade so that we can still improve the telescope in later months or years.


I would love to have nasa Make a new system to telescopes put one by earth and one by Mars and one by venus .... like make a network of telescopes so we can see farther inf different places.

Also why can't we create video??? I mean they could have the telescopes take pics every second and then send them to earth.

It still would be nice if we start using video it would give us more on the aspects of gravity lol.

Just a thought.

In response to the poster bitching about spending more money on Hubble in servicing it...

,,do you have a friggin clue how much we spend on sustaining the ISS?

Compare that to the history of Hubble's track record of performance and money spent on keeping it going!!!

You will find very quickly that not only have we spent far more money on our share of the ISS, but also maintaining a severely outdated space shuttle system than we have spent on fixing Hubble.

Hubble looks into the universe so we can learn about it.

It is definately worth saving and keeping.

ISS and the shuttle just sit in orbit and do the same crap over and over and over again, going in endless circles and to nowhere fast at 17,000+ mph.

Cheers!!!!

[edit on 2-10-2008 by RFBurns]