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Today, seven astronauts left Earth in one last attempt to save the Hubble Space Telescope. At nineteen years old, Hubble is aging and in need of major repairs. It’s also dying a slow death — at some point around 2015, Hubble’s electrical system will fail for good, and then we’ll finally have to let go. Today the New York Times has an article about the mission, and the various contingency plans that have been laid in case of (another) space shuttle disaster. The article explains the poignant reality of repairing the Hubble — we need the space shuttle to get there, and the shuttles are all themselves reaching the end of their useful lives. Here’s a snippet:
So if it is the beginning of the last act for the Hubble, the flight Monday also marks the beginning of the end for the space shuttle, whose greatest legacy might very well be the role it played in the repair and maintenance of the Hubble, what Commander Altman recently called “an incredible example of how humans and machines can work together.”
Dr. Grunsfeld, who has earned the sobriquet of “Hubble repairman” for his previous exploits in space with the telescope, said: “The only reason Hubble works is because we have a space shuttle. And of all things we do, I think Hubble is probably the best thing we use it for.”
As Mario Livio, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, put it, “It’s not just a telescope, it’s the people’s telescope.”
For lots of great Hubble photos, check out Boston’s Big Picture blog from December: Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2008. For more on the telescope’s history, see Wikipedia’s excellent Hubble Space Telescope article.
Comments (6)
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Saying the Hubble is the most important thing the shuttle has done ignores the years of flights building the ISS and going back and forth to Mir. There were many other worthy bits of research in the shuttles’ 29 years.
I believe that this is scheduled to be Atlantis’ final flight.
posted by Dave on 5-12-2009 at 12:04 am
I love the drama about the Endeavor standing by in case of a rescue needs to take place. This is some seriously good stuff. Kudos to NASA, when I’m sure if someone built one Hubble before, it would be somewhat thrifty to just build another one. They do that with F-22’s, Don’t They?
posted by Johnny Cat on 5-12-2009 at 12:04 am
Didn’t I hear something cool about building telescopes on the moon out of liquid mercury or something like that?
posted by Robert on 5-12-2009 at 12:07 am
My dad worked on the Hubble way back when, so it has a special place in my heart. :)
posted by Dawn on 5-12-2009 at 3:40 am
A tad over dramatic, no?
Hubble will be better than ever after this mission. The only real concern is a major micrometeoroid or orbital debris impact. I’ll let you know how the WFPC2 looks after 16 years up there.
After 2015, the Hubble could still be serviced if we could put someone up there with the parts. Robotic repair missions could still happen if we wanted to or we could send astronauts up in the new Orion capsule. They will just have to figure out how to get the components up there.
Someone or something will have to go back to attach a booster to deorbit it anyways.
With the new flight plan (different orientations during certain parts of the flight), the risk to the shuttle is much less than initially calculated.
posted by Troy H. on 5-12-2009 at 1:19 pm
Troy, I heard somewhere there’s a new space telescope going up even while Hubble is still operational, so I think they’re planning on replacing it. Probably a sound decision considering Hubble’s age. As long as it can keep up Hubble’s record of providing 33% of NASA’s results at 2% of the budget (figures from Newsy.com), they’ll be in good shape!
posted by Daniel on 5-18-2009 at 5:48 pm