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Final Repair Mission To Extend Hubble's Life

Posted by kdawson on from the gyros-batteries-and-a-quart-of-oil dept.

necro81 writes "The NYTimes has an in-depth piece describing an upcoming shuttle mission, scheduled for next August, to make a final service call to the Hubble Space Telescope. After the Columbia accident and the scheduled shuttle decommission in 2010, additional service trips to the telescope were off the table. The resulting hue and cry from scientists, legislators, and the public forced NASA to reconsider. Next August, if all goes well, Atlantis will grab Hubble, replace its aging gyros, attempt to revive the Advanced Camera for Surveys, and install a new camera and spectrograph. The telescope could then continue doing science well into the next decade."

7 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. No way by Quadraginta · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nonsense. COBE was far more significant. There's much more to science than pretty pictures!

  2. Re:Other than the Apollo missions... by wildsurf · · Score: 5, Informative

    And where Apollo was a triumph in engineering, Hubble is a triumph in pure science.
    Well, except for that pesky myopia debacle.
    --
    Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
  3. Re:Advantages of Hubble still worth it? by Aardpig · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, the fact that our atmosphere is opaque to UV? If you want to do UV observations, and in particular UV spectroscopy, then going above the atmosphere is the only way to do it. Nothing on the ground will *ever* be able to observe in the UV.

    Similar considerations apply to the mid- and far-IR -- the Spitzer space telescope can access wavebands that are simply not visible from the ground.

    --
    Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
  4. Re:Advantages of Hubble still worth it? by ThreeGigs · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ozone blocks ultraviolet, water vapor absorbs strongly in the infrared, dust particles et al emit in infrared too, causing a huge loss of contrast.

    Sadly, the atmosphere isn't really as transparent as it looks once you get outside the visible spectrum, and that's where 50% (a statistic made up on the spot) of astronomy breakthroughs are.

    Future scopes in space are likely to be infrared (Webb), ultraviolet, radio and x-ray specific. Plus, adaptive optics are still only a band-aid(R) compared to viewing outside the atmosphere.

  5. Re:The kind of science we all need by twiddlingbits · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hubble does not "see" the pictures you find published. The data is a series of binary values in different frequencys and intensities depending on what filter is in use and which "camera" (WFC or COS) it came from. The colors are "false" colors created on the ground to match the data values as closely as possible.

  6. Re:Will it really be the last trip? by Iskender · · Score: 4, Informative

    IIRC we cannot, by treaty, just let the Hubble's orbit decay like Skylab & Mir, we need to do a de-orbit burn and drop it in the Pacific, or some other relatively safe place. The problem was this, is that the Hubble has no rocket engines on board, so we need to send something up there to attach an engine.
    From TFA:

    In one additional piece of business, the astronauts will attach a grapple fixture to the bottom of the telescope so that a robot spacecraft could grab it and attach a rocket module in the future. The rocket would then drop the telescope into the ocean.


    They seem to be thinking ahead, almost like it was their job or something. : )
  7. Re:Other than the Apollo missions... by CJ145 · · Score: 5, Informative

    In 2013 there is suppose to be a new telescope that should be capable of replacing Hubble. http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/