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Canadian Robot Could Rescue Hubble

Posted by timothy on from the mounties-in-space dept.

NETHED writes "We have all seen Stories about The Hubble Space Telescope and its current problems. Since then, NASA has okayed the fix of the HST. It seems that America's neighbor to the North has some answers. Dextre to the rescue. The mission would not be decided upon until next summer says Sean O'Keefe. It seems that NASA saw this as a good way to listen to the public for about 1.6 billion dollars." Update: 08/11 15:45 GMT by T : Reader Michael Mol dug up a link with a more technical explanation of Dextre, noting "It looks like Dextre's normally supposed to be attached to something before it performs work."

6 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Cool by pHatidic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dextre is a clever name for a two armed robot. In classical latin Dexter is the right hand and Sinister is the left hand. That is why we call people who have "two right hands" ambi-dexterous. I'm not going to make any jokes about left handed people being sinister in case they ended up with all the mod points today.

  2. Why bother? by rabtech · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are we going to run back to mommy every time we stub our toes in space?

    Being on the frontier is dangerous; every single one of the astronauts knows this and signed up for it.

    If any of them don't want to fly Space Shuttle missions anymore, then don't make them. But I'm sure enough would volunteer for a manned Hubble repair mission that it wouldn't be a problem.

    Besides, we need to keep Hubble going; The Webb telescope is NOT a replacement for Hubble - it looks at different wavelengths; if we could ever get both of them operating at the same time they could be used in a complimentary fashion.

    --
    Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
  3. Re:Didn't realise Canada did that much in Space by fitten · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are some good robotics folks in Canada. Most notably are the Canadarm (robotic arm on the Shuttle) and a few deep diving ocean exploration vehicles that have very advanced robotic arms and such on them (one of which, with some cosmetic changes, was used in "The Abyss").

  4. Re:Didn't realise Canada did that much in Space by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You need to read up on Canada's history in space. We put up the first commercial communications satellite (no bouncing signals off of a baloon!), have the worlds most powerful communications satellites, built a synthetic aperture radar satellite with such precise imaging capabilities that the US refused to launch it, and the list goes on.

  5. Re:Repairs by Curtman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Its replacement also isn't scheduled to go up for another 7 years. And doesn't factor in the cost to get it up there yet. Or the labour to build the thing. Or the cost of fixing it when the inevitable problems crop up.

    I'll give you a freaking break right away.

  6. If they try and things go wrong,,, by Microlith · · Score: 5, Funny

    HOSERS HOBBLE HUBBLE!

    Would be an appropriate headline for the newspapers, I think :)