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Hubble Stops Sending Data, Mission On Hold
mknewman writes to tell us that NASA is no longer receiving data from the Hubble Space Telescope, which could possibly delay the shuttle launch planned just two weeks from now. There is a backup system installed which may be used instead of training the astronauts on the installation of the new component, but that would itself leave no fallback option. "NASA is reviewing whether the mission should be delayed a couple of months so that plans can be made to send up a replacement part for the failed component, said NASA spokesman Michael Curie. It would take time to test and qualify the old replacement part and train the astronauts to install it in the telescope, Curie said. NASA also would have to work out new mission details for the astronauts who have trained for two years to carry out five Hubble repair spacewalks."
Let's see if it sticks.
I dearly love NASA but, well, it is going to get harder to convince the public to continue funding if they have an impression of a high failure rate.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I'm sure they did the equivalent of "thwacking it". But the "thwack" repair method seldom lasts long.
"Thwack it" is for things like the martian hoopties Spirit and Opportunity ("Hoopties" because they're WAY out of warrantee) that you can't send a mechanic to fix.
Or us rednecks with broken cars and even broker wallets; I fixed a heater hose with duct tape on a '74 LeMans, and it still held leak-free when I sold the old junker three years later. You don't fix Rolls Royces or Hubble Telescopes with duct tape!
Free Martian Whores!
... than after the repair mission.
I particularly like Warren Buffet's reasoned analysis: "I just sank billions into Goldmen Sacks - we need moar bailout nao!!!"
The panick over motgage-backed securities has largely subsided. The only reaosn there's no market for these securities today is that no one wants to sell them at market value when they expect the government to step in and buy them up at significantly above market value.
My bank isn't in trouble - is yours?
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
...Send Endeavour up empty, and bring Hubble back home for the Smithsonian Museum.
Don't build another single big space telescope, instead, build a shitload of smaller ones that are still high-powered but can all be networked together and group-focused on distant objects and use today's computational power and interferometry technology to get superior pictures thru parallel data gathering and processing. Launch all these replacements on cheaper, single-purpose individual rockets, and if one or two of the new telescopes fail, it won't kill the whole project, just reduce distance and resolution until replacement units can be launched.
After all, Discovery was the shuttle that put the HST up there in 1990. It would only be proper that Discovery be used to bring the HST back home.
I say it should be saved for the very last flight ever for Discovery too. Re-fit the shuttle so it can be do the retrieval mission unmanned, remote controlled from the ground, because it will be a risky mission indeed. That way if something goes badly, only the machines will be lost. If it goes well, we'll gave two very nice museum pieces to be cherished for generations.
/raises glass, to the defenders of Freedom*.
*As defined by the current Administration of the United States of America.