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NASA to Reconsider Hubble Decision

Posted by michael on from the measure-twice-cut-once dept.

blamanj writes "It's not dead yet. With cries of opposition coming in from all quarters, NASA has decided to review its earlier decision. Adm. Hal Gehman, chairman of the board that investigated the Columbia shuttle breakup last year, will 'review the (Hubble) matter and offer his unique perspective,' NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said"

2 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Re:NASA can't do much without the shuttle... by dtolman · · Score: 5, Interesting
    You would think it would be child's play for NASA to send up a pair of remote controlled robots in a simple freight rocket (i.e. Arienne or similar), boost them into proximity, bring them over to Hubble, and perform the repairs remotely.

    Not so sure about that - a typical hubble repair mission involved about 5 days each with 8-10 hours of spacewalks. It also required a lot of fine motor control (they need to get into some tight spaces), and a big bag of various tools.

    As much as I wish NASA could create robots like these and send them up... they would need to pretty much design these robots from scratch.

    Since they would need to be constructed and programmed within the next 4 years or so - thats probably not in the realm of feasibilty.

  2. Re:Unique perspective? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    What is so unique about his perspective? Because he was involved in an advisory board?

    Well, look at it this way. If you, Administrator O'Keefe, order a Hubble servicing mission and something goes terribly wrong, your career along with several people's lives are almost guaranteed to be forfeit. Are you going to make that order against the better judgment of the CAIB which was responsible for unravelling the previous catastrophe? No -- if you're even thinking about going back to Hubble, this guy needs to be involved.