Telemanipulator revolution at NASA?

NASA is going to use a telemanipulator to replace batteries
and gyroscopes of the Hubble Space Telescope:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ic_040504.html

Telemanipulator terminology:
http://www.engr.utk.edu/maes/ff/rlk/ieee/

MY COMMENT:

Telemanipulators are well suited for all kinds of space work:
recycling space junk, building orbital greenhouses, repairing
orbital slings, mining the Moon, etc. The human operators of
these machines will be glad to work without pay, just for the
fun of it.

NASA was forced to use the telemanipulator by accident
(the Columbia accident). They behave like medieval Frenchmen
who were forced by wartime famine to eat frogs and weeds.
Within a decade NASA will be proud of their telemanipulators,
just like modern Frenchmen are proud of their cuisine.

Canadian space telemanipulator called Dextre can handle bolts!!!!!!
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/csa_s...s/mss_spdm.asp

Other space telemanipulators:
http://www.detnews.com/2004/technolo...a12-150753.htm

Andrew Nowicki wrote:
NASA is going to use a telemanipulator to replace batteries
and gyroscopes of the Hubble Space Telescope:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ic_040504.html

Telemanipulator terminology:
http://www.engr.utk.edu/maes/ff/rlk/ieee/

MY COMMENT:

Telemanipulators are well suited for all kinds of space work:
recycling space junk, building orbital greenhouses, repairing
orbital slings, mining the Moon, etc. The human operators of
these machines will be glad to work without pay, just for the
fun of it.

NASA was forced to use the telemanipulator by accident
(the Columbia accident). They behave like medieval Frenchmen
who were forced by wartime famine to eat frogs and weeds.
Within a decade NASA will be proud of their telemanipulators,
just like modern Frenchmen are proud of their cuisine.

This is great news for a number of reasons!

Of course, extending Hubble's service would be a wonderful thing.

And improved telemanipulators would be a very useful tool in space
development/exploration.

--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

I don't believe for a minute NASA wants to do anything but attach a de-orbiting
package and dump the Hubble. Everything else is just patronizing us in the
vocal pro-Hubble community to keep us quiet and not cause embarassment or
controversy to the administration until the re-election is over.

ospamn (MSu1049321) wrote in message ...
I don't believe for a minute NASA wants to do anything
but attach a de-orbiting package and dump the Hubble.

Better that way than to have an uncontrolled descent, but then again,
'they' might have manipulated N.A.S.A. so that Hubble's controlled
descent will have an 'accident' and descent into a heavy populated
area instead of a very low populated area.

Then the headlines will full of insulting remarks, like "Ooops!
N.A.S.A. did it again!"

Everything else is just patronizing us in the
vocal pro-Hubble community to keep us quiet
and not cause embarassment or controversy to
the administration until the re-election is over.

Personally, the whole Hubble controversy, the whole election
controversy (don't you notice that it's strange), and so on are
intentionally made so that people will fight each other.


Anyway. If Hubble suffer the same fate as Mir, it's probable due
because Hubble is a sign of ingenuity and pride of the U.S.A.'s space
program, much like Mir is a sign of ingenuity and pride for the space
program of the Soviet Union and then later on Russia. Deorbiting the
two cause the loss of pride, which bring down morale of the citizens.

EAC wrote:

I don't believe for a minute NASA wants to do anything
but attach a de-orbiting package and dump the Hubble.


Better that way than to have an uncontrolled descent,

No, an uncontrolled descent is much better. The cost of avoiding
the remote chance of ground casulaties is far too high.

But perhaps you're in favor of gross government waste?

Paul

The James Webb Space Telescope will be 1.5 million
km away from Earth -- too far for human maintenance.
NASA's associate administrator for space science,
Ed Weiler, was considering making the James Webb
Space Telescope modular and using telemanipulators
to replace its worn-out parts.

I asked NASA if they were going to abandon the
James Webb Space Telescope when its batteries
and gyros wear out. Here is their reply:

"At this point in time, NASA's management has not directed the
JWST project to change the design to make the spacecraft or
instruments more modular or serviceable. That's always subject to
change, of course. :-)

The JWST currently has a design lifetime of 5-to-10 years, so
each of the pieces is being built with the expectation that it should
last for at least 10 years. In the case of JWST, the lifetime will
not be limited by batteries, since it will always be fully lit by the
Sun (unlike HST, which has a day/night cycle as it goes around the
Earth) and won't need to build up a power reserve for "night."

NASA is going to use a telemanipulator to replace
batteries and gyroscopes of the Hubble Space Telescope:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom..._robotic_04050
4.html

This article says that people are excited about the
possibility - not that it is going to be done.

Where is the money coming from to fund any of this
development? Where is NASA going to reprogram money? Is the
Administration going to reprogram some money from the DoD to
do this? NO.

This would be wonderful but we have neither the money nor
the time to make this work. Sigh.

MY COMMENT:

Telemanipulators are well suited for all kinds of space
work: recycling space junk, building orbital greenhouses,
repairing orbital slings, mining the Moon, etc. The human
operators of these machines will be glad to work without
pay, just for the fun of it.

It would be neat if we did any of this stuff, but this is
all just science fiction and will be for years. And no one
could afford to work for free just for fun - let's be
serious here.

I don't know why I lend this idea some credibility by
answering it.

It would be wonderful if this was a possibility but we live
in the real world - or at least some of us do. The real
world (by the way) is a lot less fun than it could be.


Charles Phillips
"Drink Upstream Of The Herd, Get A Macintosh"
note feeble anti-spam attempt on Reply-To address

triples wrote:
This article says that people are excited about the
possibility - not that it is going to be done.

True. Former astronauts are lobbying in favor of another
shuttle flight to fix the Hubble. Telemanipulators have
not yet learned how to lobby NASA ;-) but they will
probably win:
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-6-3/21739.html
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/science/34200.html

It would be neat if we did any of this stuff, but this is
all just science fiction and will be for years.

Telemanipulators are not science fiction. They have been
used for half a century. They are cheaper and safer to
use than astronauts, but they don't look good on TV when
they wave the flag. Manual dexterity of the astronaut is
impaired by heavy gloves. Every NASA claim that
telemanipulators cannot do something that the astronauts
can do has been a lie. Telemanipulator may not be as fast
as the astronaut, but it can be designed to do anything
that human hands wearing heavy gloves can do.

And no one could afford to work for free just for fun
- let's be serious here.

A serious business entrepreneur considered landing a
buggy-like vehicle on the Moon and charging customers
for the privilege to control the vehicle from the Earth.

Why don't you wake up guys! All of you! There is an
opportunity to persuade NASA to make a HUGE step
forward!

"Andrew Nowicki" wrote in message
...
NASA is going to use a telemanipulator to replace batteries
and gyroscopes of the Hubble Space Telescope:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ic_040504.html

I remember reading that the Shuttle has the ability to land itself. If this
is true, why not send up an unmanned Shuttle to retrieve Hubble, repair and
upgrade it on Earth and launch it in a new orbit that can be reached by
Shuttles sent to the ISS?

The relaunch could take place during a resupply mission to the ISS.