Hubble Servicing Mission 08

Chris White · Post by **Chris White** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:21 am

NASA may announce Hubble repair mission

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/10/3 ... index.html

Chris White · Post by **Chris White** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:25 pm

I see Ben Husset beat me by like 9 hours on the lists with this news. In any event the mission has been approved for next May.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/shuttle_hubble

Kurt A. Casby · Post by **Kurt A. Casby** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 7:37 pm

Actually, I think it is a year from next May, in 2008.

Whenever it is, I think all of us Hubble fans are very happy that they decided this was worth doing, and that we can do it!

GO HUBBLE!

Clear Skies,
Kurt

Dick Jacobson · Post by **Dick Jacobson** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:56 pm

Although I'm glad to see Hubble's life will be extended, I wonder how many Hubbles could have been launched for all the money that has been spent servicing it. Probably three or four.

In the future, I wonder if space telescopes will be built that can be serviced autonomously. Leave the mirrors, which are long-lived, in orbit and just undock the detector module from the focal plane and dock a new module. This way all the short-lived stuff like electronics and gyroscopes (will they ever develop reliable gyros??) can be replaced at once. There is a company that is proposing to extend the life of communications satellites by docking a new propulsion module with the satellite. And of course the Russians have been doing autonomous docking with their Progress vehicle for many years. Seems logical to me, anyway.