NASA Resumes Work on Shuttle Flight to Hubble

Best news I've had in a while....

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=D> Three cheers for the new cheif!
Let's hope this has the happy ending we've been waiting for!

Please don't run me out on a rail, but how much further scientific value can we expect to get from Hubble? I know that it was the wonder of its day, and gets images with much better resolution than earth-bound telescopes. However, it seems that it has accomplished much of what it was designed to do.

It seems to me that it is time to replace the old guy with a bigger space scope with better optics, ccd's, etc. Am I way off-base on this?

Probably Note the present tense "gets images". There is nothing in serious development which equals the quality of HST imaging in visible light (and as far as I know that includes adaptive-optics systems, which may get superior central peaks but with fluffy and time-variable wings which are, so far, the bane of sensitive work on objects such as quasar host galaxies). It may have done what it was designed to do, but it has done far more and continues to do so.

It sounds sensible to replace it with a larger, higher-resolution optical telescope (which, note, JWST is not). However, such a thing is not on the table, NASA internal politics being what it is. The choice for people writing their congressfolk seems to be either service HST, push for something lik the Hubble Origins Probe which is a similar (but unaberrated) telescope with better detectors, or... nothing.

Space astronomy is funny.

The official date of Hubble's retirement should be the day after it finishes imaging the entirety of known visible space. Then its existence will be superfluous...but not before.

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Please don't run me out on a rail either, but I think any shuttle mission sent to hubble should be for the express purpose of bringing the old boy home. It deserves to be in the Air & Space museum alongside the X-1, the Wright Flyer, and other icons of our advancement over the last century. Hubble has done so much to advance our understanding of the cosmos that I feel letting it burn up in reentry would take something special and awesome away from future generations. My kids deserve to have the chance to look upon it in wonder. Call me sentimental.

K

That's good. Looks like NASA finally got an okay boss.

JWST will replace HST but it's not ready yet. Might as well keep it going while we can. You know any servicing mission will be worth it in the data it gains.

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Where does Hubble stand in this? What percentage of the deep sky has been imaged?

I would love to see Hubble remain operational, but I question whether it is worth it. Somewhere I saw that the price tag on servicing Hubble would be the better part of a billion dollars. There is a lot of science that could be done with that much money, but it is not necessarily astronomy.

It's a nice idea, but in the current, safety-first environment, it's not going to happen.

Contrary to press releases, JWST is an infrared telescope, more a replacement for Spitzer than for Hubble. I don't think there's anything resembling a true replacement for Hubble on the boards.

Are we talking about taking Hubble Deep Field images of the entire sky? Considering that one of those takes ten days of observing time (not telescope time), that could take a while....

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Looks like they are going to rescue the Hubble!
=D>
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7378

Senate subcommittee adds funding for Hubble servicing mission

Go, Babs!

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Good news! Griffin is the best Administrator we have had in a long while.

Unfortunately, that's not much of a compliment.

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Give the guy a chance. He isn't like Goldin--who gives everyone a piece just to keep them quiet.

Goldin was like a bad father who will give his five year old a piece of candy anytime they want it.

Griff is the good father who won't let you have the candy--but insists that you wait until you have a full meal. Once we have larger rockets flying--then you will really see improvement in all kinds of capabilities.

Be patient.

My reply was intended as a dig toward some of the recent administrators, not toward Griffin. I agree that he seems to be doing a very good job so far.

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Here's an article from today's Boulder, Colorado Daily Camera.
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/scien...876604,00.html

You might have to register.

Servicing the Hubble:
Shuttle mission plans refined

Hope for the STIS:

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This is fantastic news ! The contribution the Hubble has made to astronomy is immeasurable, and it deserves to have its mission extended, IMO.

Great! With every HST image release for the past year I've been increasingly sobered by the thought of its premature death...

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