• NASA Hubble hubbub NASA Hubble hubbub In the past 30 years, since the final moon landing, America’s most successful venture in space has been the Hubble telescope. Not since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the stars in the
• NASA Hubble hubbub
NASA Hubble hubbub
In the past 30 years, since the final moon landing, America’s most successful venture in space has been the Hubble telescope. Not since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the stars in the 17th century has any instrument so expanded man’s knowledge of the universe.
So why has NASA now decided to condemn the $4 billion Hubble to an early death? NASA is citing safety and financial concerns for its decision last month to cancel a maintenance mission to the telescope planned for 2006. Without that mission, the Hubble’s batteries and gyroscopes will slowly deteriorate, rendering it useless by 2007. With ongoing maintenance, the useful life of the Hubble would have been extended until at least 2010, or perhaps longer.
The telescope, launched in 1990, was designed for periodic maintenance and upgrades by shuttle-borne astronauts. Indeed, the first such mission, in December 1993, was one of the shuttle program’s rare shining moments. Astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour snagged the telescope with the shuttle’s robot arm, tucked it into Endeavour’s cargo bay and installed a set of lenses that corrected a serious flaw in the Hubble’s primary mirror. The result was a decade’s worth of spectacular, priceless science.
Because of Hubble, astronomers have been able to measure the distance to galaxies, unlock the mystery of quasars, confirm the existence of black holes and reveal that the universe is still accelerating, driven by an unknown force. The Hubble has helped date the universe, discover planets beyond our solar system and track Martian weather. The Hubble has been directly or indirectly responsible for perhaps as many as a third of NASA’s scientific discoveries, some estimate.
The telescope has done far more to advance man’s understanding than the six manned moon landings ever did. Certainly the Hubble missions were the among the most vital of all 111 shuttle flights.
The shuttle hasn’t flown since the Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia disaster. The board that investigated that disaster recommended that it not fly again until NASA had developed in-flight repair procedures and rescue capabilities. NASA has interpreted that to mean that astronauts must have a “safe haven” to await rescue in the event of trouble aboard the shuttle.
On missions to the International Space Station, astronauts can seek shelter. But on visits to the Hubble, isolated 350 miles above Earth, there is no place to hide, nor is the shuttle maneuverable enough to lower its orbit and rendezvous with the space station.
Moreover, NASA administrators have decreed that finishing the space station is a higher priority for the remaining flights in the shuttle program than maintaining the Hubble. That announcement came two days after President George W. Bush told NASA to reallocate $11 billion from its five-year budget to send men to the moon and beyond. Scientifically, the proposition is dubious. Some NASA engineers now argue that missions to the Hubble can be flown as safely as missions to the space station. Key members of Congress have asked retired Adm. Hal Gehman, chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, to review the data.
Adm. Gehman and his board certainly should do so. And while they’re at it, they should inquire why NASA isn’t discussing its options freely and openly instead of maintaining the culture of bureaucratic secrecy that did so much to doom Columbia, and before it, Challenger.
The most compelling reason for manned space flight is to push back the frontiers of man’s knowledge. Hubble did that. If it is possible to do so safely, it should continue to do so until the Hubble’s more sophisticated replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, is launched in 2011.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
