How do we keep Hubble up there?

Since our taxes are funding NASA I think we should have the right to
decide if Hubble is going to be brought down or not. To me Hubble has
been the greatest single invention in the last 20 years. Ever time I
have seen a image or heard of a discovery from HST it fueled my desire
for knowledge. It's the single most powerful "Shock and Awe" instrument
our government has that -don't- kill people. The governments of the
world need to work together to build a better space telescope or HST
needs to be kept running. HST has made history time and time again and
there is still a infinite amount of space to uncover.

If they plan on crying over money they need to cancel missions to
planets and moons we can't possible reach with in the next 100 years.
Right now I consider Cassini Huygens mission a massive waste of money
when HST is dying. What else is on the mission platter that is
unnecessary? Focus one need to be Earth conditions, second HST, third
everything else.

If HST is ever found unrepairable the least they could do is move it to
a stable orbit till we have the capability to recover it for the space
museum.

So the question is what can we do to keep HST running till a new space
telescope is in place?

Thoughts?

Ask the Russians and pay them 10% what NASA wants.

Every Thursday evening, I believe, thousands of amateur astronomers in west
Texas shine their green laser pointers at it, giving it the, uh, boost it
needs to stay in orbit.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6853009/


"To you, O Sun, the people of HUBBLE set up this bronze EYE reaching to THE
UNIVERSE when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their WORLD
with the spoils taken from TECHNOLOGY. Not only over the UNIVERSAL seas but
also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of BEYOND!"


hehehehe....

http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/colossus.html

How about just retreiving it and puttimg in the Smithsonian. The Shuttle was
designed
to retreive satellites, a "space truck" originally but has really done
little in the way of
retrievals.

"To you, O Sun, the people of HUBBLE
set up this bronze EYE reaching to THE
UNIVERSE when they had pacified the
waves of war and crowned their
WORLD with the spoils taken from
TECHNOLOGY. Not only over the
UNIVERSAL seas but also on land did
they kindle the lovely torch of
BEYOND!"

Jeepers, thanks! That's really swell...
Marty

Despite all the nostalgia around these parts, IMO Hubble is an antique
that needs to be retired. Recent estimates put the cost for a robotic
servicing mission at over $2 billion dollars, and a manned mission (at
_only_ $1 billion or so!) is impractical because there just isn't enough
time to prepare before the shuttles are decommissioned in 2010.

I say take the money that NASA would use for Hubble servicing and
instead design and launch modern hardware to replace its functions.
Hubble will still be useful for several more years -- then R.I.P.

Impact9 wrote:

Since our taxes are funding NASA I think we should have the right to
decide if Hubble is going to be brought down or not. To me Hubble has
been the greatest single invention in the last 20 years. Ever time I
have seen a image or heard of a discovery from HST it fueled my desire
for knowledge. It's the single most powerful "Shock and Awe" instrument
our government has that -don't- kill people. The governments of the
world need to work together to build a better space telescope or HST
needs to be kept running. HST has made history time and time again and
there is still a infinite amount of space to uncover.

If they plan on crying over money they need to cancel missions to
planets and moons we can't possible reach with in the next 100 years.
Right now I consider Cassini Huygens mission a massive waste of money
when HST is dying. What else is on the mission platter that is
unnecessary? Focus one need to be Earth conditions, second HST, third
everything else.

If HST is ever found unrepairable the least they could do is move it to
a stable orbit till we have the capability to recover it for the space
museum.

So the question is what can we do to keep HST running till a new space
telescope is in place?

Thoughts?

Great idea

"Eduardo: "Maybe they could consider building some kind of giant ball that
could wrap the Hubble in space, so when it enters Earth's atmosphere, this
huge ball can protect it from the heat. Maybe they can use the same tiles
that are used in the space shuttle. This ball can have on the inside some
kind of liquid foam, so that when the Hubble is inside the ball, it
solidifies and protects the Hubble on impact. They can arrange for the ball
to crash into the ocean...."

What a man!

The Webb telescope is already in the pipe. Replacing Hubble's
UV and visible light capabilities is not on the table

With everything that has been learnt from operating the Hubble, surely
it would be possible to now build and launch a much cheaper, simpler,
visible light only telescope. Maybe that would be a nice project for
the Europeans and/or Chinese. It would certainly be good PR. I'm sure
there's still plenty of good science that could be done for even such a
simple scope located above the atmosphere.

- Peter

Impact9:

Impact9 wrote:

[clip]

So the question is what can we do to keep HST running till a new space
telescope is in place?

Thoughts?



In the spirit of Free Enterprise I say that NASA should begin a program of
auctioning off its programs and assets.

Auction the Hubble Space Telescope.

Prior to that private firms such as Ebay or the New York Times or the Los
Angeles Times or other firms could be selected consultant bidders to
administer the auctioning process.

Use the funds to provide a little seed money for the next program.

NASA probably won't get peanuts for it in the market. Its the spirit of it
that counts. I say that they might get $100k, and there might be a separate
channel for donations. Beneficent donations could add to another $100k.

Ultimately, the HST would be left in orbit, disintegrate in the atmosphere,
or go into a hyperbolic open orbit. If it is ultimately owned by or
retrieved there should be some proviso that the related intellectual
property be kept by NASA, and that NASA property not be sold to any of a
long list of tyrannical governments.

NASA could initiate a program of selling off its other business enterprises
at auction. For example, the print/email/internet publication, NASA Tech
Briefs, should also be sold to private enterprise. The funds could be used
for the continuation of some lost programs that need funding until they
expire. The publication should get a nice piece of change.

NASA has a huge store of patents and secret technology. All the stuff that
is, or is potentially, of a military nature should be placed and protected
at at a new agency: e.g., NASA/Military, e.g., for spy satellites and
military programs. Peaceful stuff, e.g., medical, electronic, nutritional,
utility, aerospace, or chemical intellectual property should be sold. Or
give the rights to the employee or contractor-employee(s) who created the
ideas, or sell the rights to private assignees for a price.

NASA should scrap its manned Mars mission plans. Plans to explore or settle
the solar system by Christian conservatives or the USA should be scrapped.
The Moon base and private projects are plenty of work for all.

If the military needs Moon for bases, antennae, weapons, or intelligence,
NASA should go there. Thats year 2050 at least. Forget any quick and dirty
cheap shots at Mars. Pick up the Hubble on the way and place it in orbit at
the Moon. Better - shove into the Sun. Bring along a suite of multi-mirror
multi-wavelength (whatever) reflector telescopes to install on the Moon.
That would be a more useful and exciting path for science than a manned Mars.

The Moon has far better lighting for photography and exploration.

The USA and NASA could set up a geodesic survey grid system with a few
accurately placed surveyor's monuments. Individuals, private firms and
private universities from free nations could bid for the land and own and
develop the land or build businesses. Private firms from all nations except
listed tyrannies could bid on or homestead the land parcels of varying
triangular or square sizes. Foreign nations could buy land for their
consulates, and they could see after the interests of their own private
citizens.

Local laws could be set up, and that opens a number of new chapters in law.
Local legislators could start with a ban on vocational licensing, e.g., on
the educating, testing, licensing and bonding of Ornamental Art Plasterers
such that the Texas legislature attempted to cast into law.

The USA administration pragmatist Conservatives (read neo-liberals) should
be prevented from setting up socialist, e.g., government owned and operated
business enterprises on the Moon or anywhere else for that matter. The USA
should develop the government of the Moon as place where protected liberty
should be the norm.

A true free enterprise trading system could be set up, and that is based on
non-coercive taxation and private ownership. In a tax-free environment that
uses only volitional means of raising exclusively Moon-related government
revenues private investment would flow freely to the Moon-related enterprises.

The amount of science that would be done would be stupendous.

What about the HST? What's its orbit, and could it be repaired years later?

By the time the politicians could possibly complete a grandiose political
schedule and land pragmatist-socialist-creationists on Mars, the greatest
free enterprise telescopes and scientific apparatus ever created could be
in place on the Moon.

Multi-terabyte images in GA, XR, UV, VL, IR, and RF wavelengths could be
made. A new term may be needed for spectral depth per pixel. Could VL iron
lines be found at extreme red-shifted wavelengths in the RF wavelengths?
Oops. That would be politically incorrect and such experiments would never
be funded by the current politicians. Iron in the RF?...that's extending a
concept by application in the Euclidean straight line way...however, that's
too stressful and that is probably also to no avail.

We respect the achievement of the HST, and its creators are our friends.
Give its creators new funding, hopefully private enterprise, for Moon based
super telescopes, and lets get all their names in the press as heroes.
Movie producers do it, and so why not science?

The reader may recognize the fact that the Moon is the best solid
geological telescope base and has the clearest telescopic seeing of any
place yet found in the universe.

Ralph Hertle