Comments on: Hubble trouble

By: GoPiano

GoPiano — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:15:47 +0000

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By: Entelechy

Entelechy — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:20:13 +0000

Thank you Bryan for featuring this. I’ve said this before but one of the sadest things for me is that we spend so much money on nonsense when we could spend it on more space exploration/programs.

The people who work in this domain are so dedicated and special, many multiple PHd’d, and yet so unpretentious. A special breed, indeed.

By: johnnyU

johnnyU — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 03:46:16 +0000

They are currently talking about recovery of some of the capability of the bad camera (maybe 1/3) if they can get the scoop on the actual failure component and restart the #1 side of the electronics again. (the #2 is what smoked)

Meanwhile Hubble has two otherinstruments running fine and folks on a waiting list for science from those instruments are now excited becuase they can squeeze those observations in now.

Give them time to assess it all. They may surprise us with some other brainstorm of a fix before the overhaul in 2008.

By: sonnyspats1

sonnyspats1 — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:23:43 +0000

Hey I have an idea ! How about a twin shuttle mission. Two paylaods could surely acommidate the neccesary payload. We call it the double bubble the fix the hubble! Besides I live a half hour from The Cape and those missions are awesome. The last one was a P.M. lift off. It was very cool. Upon re-entry Senator Bill Nelson D-FL narrated the event live on local TV. I must say the man must have spent years in aviation and aeronautics cause he knew his stuff. He was proud as a peacock about the mission. I like his personality. I think he is a Democratic disentor on the no surge resolution.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:34:34 +0000

Servicing isn’t just about the astronaut vehicles. Hubble was built with grapples inside and out and was cofigured from the beginning to allow for on-orbit servicing. JWST isn’t being built that way–it’s just not in the design at all.

By: Kokonut

Kokonut — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:34:18 +0000

Maybe the Chinese pointed a laser light beam into the great eye. My eye... My red eye...!

By: LegendHasIt

LegendHasIt — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:50:51 +0000

Too bad. Some of the most amazing images I have ever seen came from there.

Very interesting that so many of you were closely connected with it.

By: Natrium

Natrium — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:10:09 +0000

Bryan, the telescope might be servicable by the new Orion spacecraft. Admittedly, that may be rather iffy, since the distance you are talking of for the new telescope is nearly 4 times the average distance between the earth and moon.

However, I do understand that the Orion is the first step towards a human presence on Mars, so it is not inconceivable that it could also be used to service manmade objects in earth (or near earth) orbit.

By: The Autopsy

The Autopsy — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:05:51 +0000

Hubble Is Out a Camera…

The good news is that the camera was due to be replaced anyway in 2008. Perhaps they’ll push the delivery up a few months to get the HST back on its feet faster?…

By: thirteen28

thirteen28 — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:49:21 +0000

Sort of. The James Webb Space Telescope (named after a NASA administrator, not the senator) is supposed to launch circa 2014.

If it was named after the senator, it would be myopically focused on Iraq to the exclusion of the rest of the universe.

By: taznar

taznar — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:42:21 +0000

I get the impression the various imaging systems are relatively modular, so I was wondering about the feasibility of replacing, rather than reparing the ACS system. I’m assuming the cost of a new system is trivial compared to the cost of getting it there and that removing the system isn’t significantly harder than installing it in the first place.

In response to the previous question, there is a replacement (the Webb telescope) in the works, but it will still be several years before it is operational. I know a lot of scientists would like to keep Hubble alive until Webb goes operational.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:38:48 +0000

Sort of. The James Webb Space Telescope (named after a NASA administrator, not the senator) is supposed to launch circa 2014. It’ll be a serious discovery machine, but one of its drawbacks will be that it will operate in the infrared. That means the science will be astounding but the pictures won’t be a pretty as Hubble’s have been. Additionally, to get it cold enough to image deep enough in the IR, it’ll sit at a point which is about 1 million miles from earth (Hubble is 350 miles up in orbit around earth, within range of the shuttles so that it could be serviced and upgraded on orbit). That means the JWST won’t be servicable by astronauts, so if something breaks there’s no way to fix or replace anything.

All of which means that while the JWST will be an amazing spacecraft, it’s unlikely to capture the public’s imagination the way Hubble has.

By: Number 2

Number 2 — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:31:53 +0000

Bryan, is there a replacement for Hubble in the pipeline?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:26:17 +0000

They discussed missions like that at length over the past several years. The bottom line is that Hubble was built to go up and stay but it’s too delicate to survive re-entry in a shuttle (or outside a shuttle, obviously). And it’s too unsafe for the astronauts to bring the main body back. Shuttles are dangerous enough vehicles as they are. It’s a shame. Hubble’s impact on astronomy is incredible, but we’ll lose the physical instruments that did all the work in a few years. Let the conspiracy theories begin…

Hubble’s engineering model is at the Air & Space Museum in DC. It’s not a replica–it’s the body that didn’t fly in 1990. They also have the mirror blank there too and one of the instruments that astronauts removed on an earlier SM. It’s not the Hubble body that flew, but it’s as close as we’ll ever get.

By: Mazztek

Mazztek — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:23:41 +0000

Doubble Bubble Hubble Trouble Say that 10 times fast!!

By: Jason Coleman

Jason Coleman — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:15:52 +0000

It would be nice to see them find a mission where the shuttle is returning with very little cargo, then add on a two-day mission extension to part out the hubble and bring home the chassis. They could de-orbit the wings and much of the shielding. I”m sure that a re-build of the Hubble would be far less expensive than the first go round and we won’t have the need for the eyeglasses if we do the mirror right.

I’d venture to say that if NASA were to bring down the majority of materials and transfer it to a private/public concern that the free market would cover the rebuild.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:12:12 +0000

Yeah, I was on the project for 8 years. My officemate for the last couple years was the man in charge of processing all of the imagery. Given the way the Hubble data pipeline works, he’ll probably have new images coming out of the ACS for as long as a year from now. I doubt we’ll see much interruption in public releases, even if new science isn’t being done with the ACS any longer.

I don’t know of any friends of mine at Tidbinbilla, but people do move around the space program so it’s possible someone I knew at some point might be there now.

By: MKR

MKR — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:05:29 +0000

Bryan,

Got any friends at Tidbinbilla (CDSCC)?

One of my best mate’s father, Peter Churchill, was Station Director there until recently.

By: shooter

shooter — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:46:52 +0000

Little sad for me too. A relative of mine is an Aerospace EE with some interest in the Hubble.
For me? Its a daily must link on my personal home page, it is truly astounding what they’ve done so far.
B, you were there? Cool, very cool.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:46:30 +0000

Hubble itself still has a few years of life left in her. SM4 will see to that.

Your husband worked on the COSTAR? Coooool.

By: Labamigo

Labamigo — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:42:53 +0000

I blame Bush.

By: Babs

Babs — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:42:10 +0000

my husband worked on the optics for the Hubble way back when. In fact, he put the “eyeglasses” on the thing.
The fact that it is now going down is very sad to us…