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NASA Approves Five More Years For Hubble Space Telescope (newscientist.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: NASA has announced plans to extend operations of the famous space telescope for another five years, through to June 2021. That means it will still be on the job when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launches in 2018, giving astronomers a dual view of the universe. "Hubble is expected to continue to provide valuable data into the 2020s, securing its place in history as an outstanding general-purpose observatory in areas ranging from our solar system to the distant universe," said a NASA statement. Squeezing more life out of Hubble means it will overlap with NASA's next big telescope, JWST when it launches in 2018. While Hubble sees the cosmos in visible and ultraviolet light, JWST operates in the infrared. The various wavelengths can reveal different aspects of stars and galaxies, so using the scopes in tandem will enable astronomers to study the heavens in even greater detail.
Why not use it until it's completely broken?
Translation: This is gonna be an IR-only telescope because we saved $1000 by not adding a visible-light CCD.
Your IP address disagrees.
This plague should have stopped bailing you out after WWI
If the usa forces it's laws and culture on the world, then why isn't the rest of the world is more civilized?
The EU doesn't have nukes to launch, there nukes are under control of the UN.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Eh?
In 2118 they will look back on our foolish attempts to reduce landfill, those golden repositories of resources just born for robot armies to scour.
We are stupider to compensate for 2118 life than 1900 would for 2016. Policies that slow tech dev are net murderous.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
If the usa forces it's laws and culture on the world, then why isn't the rest of the world is more civilized?
The EU doesn't have nukes to launch, there nukes are under control of the UN.
If peragrin forces an apostrophe on a possessive pronoun, then why doesn't he know that it's means it is?
This plague should have stopped bailing you out after WWI
Then we would by now be stuck with even more arrogant Germans dreaming up insane regulations, but this time with nobody to buy electricity from. At least the French have better cuisine.
Why not use it until it's completely broken?
This[1] article says almost $100 million per year for the Hubble. So they'll have to compare how much science they could get per year for $100 million if they spent it on other projects.
But as long as it's fairly functional I imagine they'll keep it up there.
It's not just about "how much science." NASA has had four missions that every child knows about, that have helped the agency and mankind a thousandfold more than the science we've gotten from them. That is because of the effect they have had at capturing the public imagination and inspiring people about science, about the quest for knowledge and exploration, about a hopeful future.
The Moon Landing.
Pioneer 10.
The Spirit and Opportunity Rovers.
Hubble.
The success of Hubble is not in its ability to generate science; it is in its ability to show the stars to millions of everyday people through the amazing pictures it takes. If it did that and we had learned nothing new from it to contribute to our science, it would still have been one of the most effective projects in the history of civilization.
Real lawyers write in C++
If peragrin forces an apostrophe on a possessive pronoun, then why doesn't he know that it's means it is?
Depends on what the definition of is is.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
But you forgot the Fappening. Great pictures.
Canadarm ... yay!
What in hell does this word salad mean? Impiuos Imp? What does that mean???