So just slip one extra Shuttle mission in with the rest - the Hubble's good
science, and more importantly for NASA, good PR.






"John Doe" wrote in message
...
The BBC has an interesting article about mounting support for Hubble,
including a petition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/3437309.stm

Save the Hubble' campaign soars

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

A petition website calling for the Hubble Space Telescope to be saved is
attracting a growing number of hits.

http://www.SaveTheHubble.com was established by University of Brasilia
lecturer Fernando Ribeiro following the US space agency's decision to
abandon
the scope.

"I hope it will become a forum about Hubble's prospects and a launch pad
(so
to speak) for a campaign to save it."

Left alone, Hubble, called the most important scientific instrument ever,
could only survive another three years.

Safety concerns

Astronomers were stunned when Nasa's chief, Sean O'Keefe, decided on 16
January to cancel the fifth, and final, visit of the space shuttle to
service
the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

A service call is essential to ensure Hubble's smooth operation until the
end
of the decade.

The telescope has only three working gyroscopes, down from its compliment
of
six, and cannot afford to lose any more.

" Let the voters say: "We don't want to go to the moon! We want to go to
infinity and beyond!" "
Fernando Ribeiro

O'Keefe decided that in the wake of the Columbia disaster it was unwise to
send astronauts on a shuttle mission that could not reach the safety of
the
International Space Station in the event of a problem.

Dismayed astronomers understood O'Keefe's logic, but many pointed out that
there would now be a gap of several years between the demise of Hubble and
its
replacement reaching orbit.

They also wondered if there was any way to save the telescope.

Noise from Brazil

In Brazil, Fernando Ribeiro also wondered if Hubble could be saved.

"The HST is such an important, complex, fascinating and cost/benefit
effective
instrument that it is hard to imagine someone could ever suggest it should
be
dumped into the ocean, let alone Nasa itself," he told BBC News Online.

"I am fan of science and of space. I was standing in front of a huge black
and
white TV set when Neil Armstrong took the small step (or the giant leap if
you
prefer) on the Moon. I was seven and never forgot the thrill of the
moment."

Mr Ribeiro first heard about Hubble's demise from the internet.

"I sat in front of the monitor and stared at it for several minutes
recollecting all the facts I knew about Hubble. Its planning, building,
the
flawed mirror, the device to fix it, the book I had: Gems of the Hubble. I
thought about the loss it meant to the whole human
race."

So www.SaveTheHubble.com was born.

"I imagined that it could be a good idea to build up a site where people
could
voice their feelings and ideas about the whole story. My role would be to
put
together as many references as I could about the struggle to save the
telescope."

"There has been an exponential growth of the public outcry in favour of
the
instrument, and it is just the beginning! Since the matter is obviously
political, public pressure will certainly play a big role, especially in
an
election year."

The petition will be sent to Nasa and US politicians.

"Let the voters say: 'We don't want to go to the moon! We want to go to
infinity and beyond!'," said Mr Ribeiro.