Hubble Getting an Upgrade

instinctdesign writes: "The New York Times (free registration of course) is running a story on the planned upgrades to the one of NASA's greatest successes, the Hubble Space Telescope. Here is a quote from the article about the plans: 'Tasks include adding a new primary camera, replacing the telescope's electricity-generating solar arrays, replacing the main power switching controller, replacing a critical pointing device and installing an experimental cooling system in hopes of reviving a dormant instrument.'"

Comments

Reported does not make it true

[marcus]

Do the math $734 x 200,000,000 does not equal the NASA budget. Nor does the NASA budget even come close to the military or farm subsidies.

As far as getting the same results with radio telescopes, well I guess you should take some science courses, and perhaps an elective in photography.

Actually, they are...

[mbessey]

The KH-12 reconnaissance satellite is essentially just that - a Hubble Space Telescope, pointing down, instead of up. There aren't enough intelligence analysts and satellites available to keep the whole planet under surveillance 24/7, though.

more information about spy satellites

-Mark

Re:Can't they use Hubble ...

[CheshireCatCO]

While I'm pretty sure that was a joke, I feel obligated to point out (since there is often confusion on this point) that HST cannot look at the Earth's surface. First of all, it isn't designed to handle looking through an atmosphere. Secondly, and more importantly, the brightness of the Earth would send it into safe mode instantly. As it is, HST can't look at the Sun or Moon, and Earth is much more reflective than the Moon.

Re:More taxpayers cash flushed down the lavatory

[Cy Guy]

Actually the entire NASA Budget for the last two years has been just under $15B with a full $15B budgeted for FY2003.

If you we take the US Census Bureau as an authority then the current US Population is about 286.5 Million.

$15,000,000,000 / 286,500,000 = $52.36, or almost exactly $1/week per American.

Plus, I find these statistics of cost per American pretty irrelevant, since the poorest 20% of Americans don't pay income tax and therefore are contributing nothing to run NASA. On the other hand, the Bush tax cuts passed last year by repealing the inheritance tax gave Bill Gates a $30B tax cut, enough to pay NASA's whole budget for two straight years!