NASA Preparing Manned Hubble Service Mission

danimrich writes "According to an article at Space.com, 'NASA's new Administrator Mike Griffin told reporters today [April 29] that he informed key members of Congress Thursday evening that he would direct engineers at Goddard Spaceflight center to start preparing for a space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope on the assumption that one ultimately will go forward.'"

Re:Handling too much?

[Richard_at_work]

The Russians cannot budget enough for much more than they do now, which is why the Russians are asking NASA to get on with getting the Shuttle back up so they can resume some of the supply missions. NASA did look into funding the Russian program to a certain extent, but its forbidden from doing so because of legislation forbidding funding of states which provide support to Iran.

Re:Of five space shuttles...

[jackb_guppy]

Then you are for removing all forms of transport. Since in every from that are deaths.

The question is using meaniful messures to compare safety. That was base post.

Using item counts, One person takes one trip and is killed, then all vehicals that type the person used in the trip is unsafe.

Using mailage counts we can compare the reality safety of each trip.

Which bring us to you second point. Safely returning the crew... you are right, that is goal. How do you messure safely? Is is every trip MUST return a person safely... IF so then no trips can be made. First is point of my first paragraph. Or is there a relative risk? 99.9999% of trips will end sucessfully.

That why you drive car and BUY Auto Insurance and Life Insurance. The first is for 99.9999% will end sucessfully/safely. The other two, you are betting that you will screw-up!

Re:Is it worth it?

[Anonymous Coward]

They are replacing it with a new one. the NGST (james webb space telescope or next generation space telescope) will be on line around 2011. But it will not monitor the visible light range. In addition, who is to say that it will be produced? There could be future budget cuts, problems with production, problems with launch. In addition, it will be a long ways away from earth (between the sun and earth). If it fails, then game over. We have a working telescope that simply needs maintenance. The risk and costs of going up there is not that high. In addition, we need to learn how to work in space, so this is simply a step.

Re:Safety Concerns

[Sargent1]

The safety concern was that, if the shuttle had its tiles damaged by foam (or ice from the external tank) so that it couldn't come back to Earth, the shuttle couldn't transfer its orbit to the ISS for safe docking. Instead, NASA would have to send a second shuttle up and try an on-orbit shuttle-to-shuttle dock. That's why the Hubble mission was deemed "more dangerous than any other" -- the "other" missions are to the ISS, which can act as a safe harbor.

Re:This argument sucks

[helioquake]

One correction: not all of astronauts are test pilots, though many take up flying before or after becoming an astronaut. It is true that the flying experience is a definite plus to become an astronaut.

Re:The hubble has generated more science than the.

[True Grit]

While Infrared light may generate alternate avenues of science, humans dont see in infrared.

Did you really think all those Hubble images were raw images fresh from the scope? No they were all computer enhanced, just like the [caltech.edu] IR [caltech.edu] images [caltech.edu] from [caltech.edu] IR [caltech.edu] scopes [caltech.edu] are [caltech.edu].

HUMANS DON'T NEED TO SEE IN INFRARED, ONLY THE SCOPE DOES. jeesh.

PS: It's not an "alternative avenue", its the primary avenue where most scientists want to go anyway.

Hubble Origins Probe: replace instead of repair

[FleaPlus]

It seems to me that were going to spend entirely to much money on something that is old obsolete. Why not replace it with something new and better?

IMHO, we should. A copy from an old post of mine:

Hubble Origins Probe: replace instead of repair?

Astronomy Magazine reports [astronomy.com] that an international team of astronomers has proposed an alternative [spaceref.com] to sending a robotic or human repair mission to the ailing Hubble Space Telescope [wikipedia.org]. Their proposal is to build a new Hubble Origins Probe [jhu.edu], reusing the Hubble design but using lighter and more cost-effective technologies. The probe would include instruments currently waiting to be installed on Hubble, as well as a Japanese-built imager which 'will allow scientists to map the heavens more than 20 times faster than even a refurbished Hubble Space Telescope could.' It would take an estimated 65 months and under $1 billion to build and launch, less than the estimated cost of a service mission [wired.com].