NASA To Determine Hubble's Fate

clickclickdrone writes "According to the BBC NASA is debating whether or not to send astronauts in to space to service the Hubble telescope. Without intervention it is thought to be good for another 24-36months. Given the quality of images and data it has produced since it's launch, it sounds like a no brainer to me but the people who hold the purse strings are rarely predictable when it comes to spending money."

Comments

Um...'quality of images?'

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a dirty secret that NASA doesn't talk about much: the sphericity of Hubble's main receiver array was off, so they had to send astronauts to put an extra lens in. This tends to damp the brightness of the spectra Hubble collects. The upshot? Observatories in Hawaii and New Mexico do better. Astronomers use THOSE observatories for cutting-edge research. After an initial bout of useful work, now Hubble just produces pretty pictures for screensavers (and boy has NASA played those up...'look at the 'startingly brilliance of' etc etc). So now the public loves the hubble thing, but for the most part astronomers don't care, save from a PR standpoint. Let it burn.