27-04-2005 06:31									#1
	Hubble celebrates 15th aniversary Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia...g=hubble_anniv2

	27-04-2005 11:15									#2
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* DRoseDARs waits for the fireworks as Hubble is deorbited...

	27-04-2005 11:25									#3
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Such an old and outdated piece of equpiment. It needs replaced.

Jon Miller

	27-04-2005 11:26									#4
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And is planned to be by the end of the decade, but until then it can still gather useful data.

	27-04-2005 11:27									#5
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It takes money to keep it up though. Honestly I would rather that money went to new equipment. Now if we had the option of that money being used for Hubble or for Pork for Senators I would want it used for Hubble of course.

Jon Miller

	27-04-2005 11:37									#6
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I may be mistaken (I was already corrected in the solar panel thread), but isn't the Hubble's replacement already under construction? I would think it would have to be in order to be ready for a 2009-11 launch. Don't scientific probes/satellites usually take about a decade to build?

	27-04-2005 11:45									#7
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They take a while. I think a decade is a bit long, but I don't know that much on the details.

Jon Miller

	27-04-2005 23:23									#8
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Jon, scientific Space Flight just isn't too much of a profitable sector, yet. No replacement for Hubble would be more profitable than it. they're just trying to save the money they need to 1984 YOU.

	27-04-2005 23:30									#9
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Hubble

One of the best projects yet.

	28-04-2005 00:49									#10
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quote: Originally posted by Ecthelion Jon, scientific Space Flight just isn't too much of a profitable sector, yet. No replacement for Hubble would be more profitable than it. they're just trying to save the money they need to 1984 YOU.

by profitable I mean from the scientific standpoint

Hubble is old technology

(I am well aware that the hubble and hubble type apparatus will never be profitable)

Jon Miller

	28-04-2005 01:00									#11
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it still produces cool pictures. you got a better camera up there? will you get one up there before scrapping Hubble?

	28-04-2005 01:13									#12
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no

but if I have an option between having to wait longer for a better camera, or not being able to take pictures for a while and getting a better camera earlier

I would get the better camera earlier

JM

	28-04-2005 01:37									#13
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I doubt destroying the Hubble will expedite the deployment of its replacement. And most people would choose to be able to take pictures while waiting to save enough for a newer camera. Kinda like people running a car into the ground before getting a new (or used) one. Hubble still works, still collects "useful" data, and is still a symbol of our collective scientific curiosity.

Here's an offical site:
http://hubble.nasa.gov/overview/faq.php

quote: How much does Hubble cost? Initially Hubble cost $1.5 billion to build and put into orbit. Hubble's total budget in one year is in the range $230-250 million. That money does more than simply keep Hubble operating on a daily basis. In addition to operational costs, the total dollar figure includes funds for scientific data analysis, as well as for the development of future hardware and its associated software. The concept of servicing Hubble to upgrade its instruments rather than launching a whole new telescope has saved billions of dollars.

That last bit I don't pay much credence too. Conservation is great and all, but Hubble IS getting old and it would be difficult to keep servicing it. The time has come for it to be replaced, though it can stand to be used a little while longer in the mean time.

	28-04-2005 03:24									#14
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quote: Originally posted by Jon Miller Such an old and outdated piece of equpiment. It needs replaced. Jon Miller

[sarcasm]Yes, old space junk needs to to scrapped because it records no useful information.[/sarcasm]

	28-04-2005 03:27									#15
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no

it is just if an old peice of equpiment is taking all my money, than it needs to be gotten rid of to open up for new equpiment

same reason why the shuttle needs retired

JM

	28-04-2005 03:36									#16
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I don't think that a new telescope would necessarily get the money formerly assigned to the Hubble repair job.

I think we should maintain it, until we get a replacement up and running.

	28-04-2005 03:40									#17
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Couldn't possibly afford it unless we could somehow get Lefty involved.

	28-04-2005 04:23									#18
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quote: Originally posted by Jon Miller no it is just if an old peice of equpiment is taking all my money, than it needs to be gotten rid of to open up for new equpiment same reason why the shuttle needs retired JM

The costs of keeping Hubble up are not coming from its replacement. In fact, if they de-orbited the ISS and kept Hubble going (and yes, Hubble will continue to answer important questions even as scientists await a more capable replacement) everybody wins.

Right now, the most vital questions of cosmology can only be investigated with the HST, and a four or five year delay in answering those questions will mean many times that many years of delay in understanding the cosmos, because scientists who would have gone into cosmology will go into other fields. They simply cannot do much postdoc work without scientific investigation and new information. A portion of a generation of cosmologists will be lost, and that will take time to recover from.

In the big scheme o' things, that really does not matter, but then again in the BSo'T not much realy does.

I justbwould like to have as much of my curiousity about the universe resolved before I kick the bucket as I can. Selfish, I know.

	28-04-2005 05:03									#19
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The HST still produces data, while the ISS has been whittled into uselessness.

Save the Hubble, and burn the ISS.

	28-04-2005 06:13									#20
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quote: Originally posted by The Mad Monk The HST still produces data, while the ISS has been whittled into uselessness. Save the Hubble, and burn the ISS.

Read this, people, and recognize genius in your midst.

	28-04-2005 06:51									#21
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New and better telescopes can be deployed for the same cost as each reservcing mission. Of course, that doesn't mean we have that many telescopes to put in orbit. I think until we can start tossing a couple telescopes up a year we keep this one. Time slots on Hubble are extremely limited as it is.

	28-04-2005 06:57									#22
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I agree with Jon. I would support a new telescope, but a funding wedge has to be available from existing funds to pay for it. To do a repair mission for Hubble and a new telescope at the same time is an attempt to "double dip" by the astronomers and gain funding territory. It's nothing more than a bureaucratic gambit.

	28-04-2005 07:17									#23
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On one of the Discovery channels last night they had a program about repairing the Hubble. The brought up the fact that recent telescopes cost about .67 billion to launch, which is the same amount that it costs to repair the Hubble. Orbital telescope technology is getting much cheaper.

My point about there being not enough time for all the research that needs to be done, however, remains. Why bring the Hubble down when it still works? Why not keep it running until we have enough telescopes in orbit that it no longer makes economic sense to keep it aloft?

	28-04-2005 07:25									#24
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Well, if it continues to work, then keeping it up is no problem. But it's not expected to work after a couple of years. Eventually, you need to deorbit the telescope safely into the ocean.

I would encourage people not to get hung up on nostalgia for the past and to plan and to build bigger, better new telescopes. The Hubble has given us over a decade of good astronomy and it has whetted our appetites for the new and improved. We can build and launch much bigger mirrors nowadays.

Just a couple weeks ago, an extrasolar planet was observed directly for the first time. That should give us plenty of impetus to be curious about planets of Earth size or smaller. As much as I like Hubble, if servicing it would delay satiating my curiosity for more than a couple of moments, I would opt not to service it.

Last edited by DanS on 28-04-2005 at 07:34