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Astronauts Should Fix Hubble

Posted by michael on from the just-do-it-already dept.

Re-Pawn writes "NASA urged to send shuttle to Hubble - Astronauts, not robots, should fix the Hubble Space Telescope, says a new report by the US National Research Council (NRC). That conclusion is directly at odds with NASA, which is opposed to a human mission on safety grounds, following the Columbia disaster."

4 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Cheaper to replace it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The NASA FAQ says:
    How much does Hubble cost?

    Initially Hubble cost $1.5 billion to build and put into orbit.
    The linked article has a higher pricetag to save it:
    And though they differ in many respects, both a human and a robotic mission share similar price tags. The Aerospace Corporation and the US Government Accountability Office estimate that each type of mission would cost about $2 billion.
    Seems like we could just send up a new one for significantly less.
    1. Re:Cheaper to replace it? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, if you are NASA, the first one will cost the most: including the R&D. The second one, while not as much cheaper as a mass produced item, won't require repeating the R&D. Even if it did, it would cost less to do it the second time around. Not 50% more.

      --

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      make install -not war

  2. What is the shuttle for, anyway? by VernonNemitz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure the original description of the Shuttle was to be a kind of "space truck", for both transport and servicing missions. To say it is too unsafe to use for its intended purpose just underscores the incompetence of whatever committee it was that bollixed the design. Get rid of them, and post a big sign in EVERY meeting room that (A) describes the debacle, and (B) recommend that it never, ever happen again. (Now, if only somebody in those meeting rooms actually paid attention to the sign....)

  3. Re:Manned flight is unsafe by sarlen · · Score: 2, Insightful
    But I say let's send manned missions where they're most valuable: to the moon, to mars. Not to swap batteries on Hubble.

    The Hubble has taught us 100x more about space and it's origins than that one trip to the moon. It just nearly killed a few guys so Kennedy (posthumously) could laugh at the Russians.