Hope For The Hubble?

According to SPACE.com the operators of the Hubble Space Telescope are investigating alternative ways of keeping it in business:

Hubble Space Telescope operators plan to ask Russia for help in keeping the observatory alive and will even consider accepting private donations, which have already been offered.

Every idea under the Sun will be considered for keeping the popular and scientifically valuable observatory operating even though NASA has decided to let it die.

"We're in the mode of pursuing every wacky concept out there," said Steven Beckwith, the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which operates Hubble for NASA.

Much as I wish the Hubble would remain in service, I just don't see it happening unless a future Shuttle mission is authorized. It is simply to dependant on the Shuttle's unique ability to capture and repair orbiting satellites. The Russian Soyuz spacecraft simply isn't as capable. The Soyuz can't carry the necessary payload and doesn't have as sophisticated an EVA capability. Absent some reprieve, the HST will most likely be deorbited like Mir and dumped into the ocean.

Without a servicing mission, Hubble has a life expectancy of, at most, 3-1/2 years if some creative solutions can be employed, Beckwith said today in a telephone interview.

Hubble is slated to be replaced with the "next-generation" James Webb Space Telescope, a technological marvel which will utilize a lightweight mirror much larger in size than the Hubble's. Photons gathered by JWST will be fed to instruments that are exceptionally sensitive to infrared wavelengths. Also, unlike Hubble, JWST's working location will be 940,000 miles out in space - stationed at the Lagrange Point 2. It is in this locale where the spacecraft is fully deployed, fully ready for action, and balanced between the gravity of the Sun and the Earth. That balance of gravitational pull at the L2 point means that JWST will keep up with the Earth as it goes around the Sun. However, at that distance astronauts won't be able to service the telescope as they do Hubble. As remarkable as the Webb scope will be, its infrared eye won't really be a replacement for Hubble:

11:57:17 PM      trackback []  

In Heaven There Is No Beer

That's why we drink it here. Or so the song goes. Maybe that explains this news story:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has sent in the army to bolster a week-long struggle to rescue 10 tons of beer trapped under Siberian ice, Itar-Tass news agency said Tuesday. A lorry carrying the beer sank when trying to cross the frozen Irtysh river, and a rescue team of six divers, 10 workers and a modified T-72 tank from the emergencies ministry have so far failed to save the load.

So next time you're raising a tall, frosty adult beverage, think of your Russian comrades and offer them a toast.

File under Stuff That Don't Fit Anywhere Else.

8:07:22 AM      trackback []