Comment Re:So, anyone want to be the first to assume? (Score 5, Interesting) 467
I think I might be able add a little perspective here, and yes "OMG .." is a good start. I have been working for the past 5+ years on a science instrument for SM4. We've been busting ours butts, and our instrument is complete and ready to go. Today we learned that our mission is cancelled immediately, thanks for playing, do not collect$200, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
The 'safety' issue is that the shuttle must fly a different orbit to service the Hubble than for a trip to the ISS (International Space Station). Once in orbit, a tile-damaged Hubble bound shuttle could not change its orbit to reach the safety of the ISS. NASA COULD however have another shuttle on the pad to catch up to the damaged orbiter and unload the astronauts. The problem is cost, whether to have the extra shuttle ready, or to employ a in-orbit tile fixing procedure.
GW is forcing NASA to re-direct $11Billion dollars from existing science projects to add to his contribution of $1Billion, so that we can send our ass(et)s to the Moon.IMHO, the cancelling of SM4 is purely about saving money. IMHO, this is GWs 'pie in the sky', get there before those evil Chinise and do it now, or I'm gonna cry, 'vision'.
The Hubble has been the best observatory ever constructed, and while ground-based optical telescopes have caught up the Hubble is some respects, no ground-based telescope can measure UV light, or compete with the Hubble on image stability (among many other things).
What's to become of the Hubble ? We cannot just let it fall back to Earth, very large pieces will survive the re-entry. Ideas have been tossed around with the options being to spend tons-o-cash to de-orbit it with a special rocket pack (guiding it into ocean), or bring it down with a shuttle.I doubt that the rocket pack can be constructed before Hubble re-enters in 2006. So, we may have to send a shuttle up to bring it down anyway.
FYI, SM4 would have extended the Hubble's livetime considerably with new Gyros and pushing Hubble back up to the shuttle yes maximum elevation. This would allow for overlap with JWST. Without this facility (HST) an entire arm of the astronomy community will be cut off.
Can you imagine if GW told the military, sorry about cancelling those jet-fighter things, don't worry we're gonna build this large wooden badger that's gonna show those silly French guys real good.
The 'safety' issue is that the shuttle must fly a different orbit to service the Hubble than for a trip to the ISS (International Space Station). Once in orbit, a tile-damaged Hubble bound shuttle could not change its orbit to reach the safety of the ISS. NASA COULD however have another shuttle on the pad to catch up to the damaged orbiter and unload the astronauts. The problem is cost, whether to have the extra shuttle ready, or to employ a in-orbit tile fixing procedure.
GW is forcing NASA to re-direct $11Billion dollars from existing science projects to add to his contribution of $1Billion, so that we can send our ass(et)s to the Moon.IMHO, the cancelling of SM4 is purely about saving money. IMHO, this is GWs 'pie in the sky', get there before those evil Chinise and do it now, or I'm gonna cry, 'vision'.
The Hubble has been the best observatory ever constructed, and while ground-based optical telescopes have caught up the Hubble is some respects, no ground-based telescope can measure UV light, or compete with the Hubble on image stability (among many other things).
What's to become of the Hubble ? We cannot just let it fall back to Earth, very large pieces will survive the re-entry. Ideas have been tossed around with the options being to spend tons-o-cash to de-orbit it with a special rocket pack (guiding it into ocean), or bring it down with a shuttle.I doubt that the rocket pack can be constructed before Hubble re-enters in 2006. So, we may have to send a shuttle up to bring it down anyway.
FYI, SM4 would have extended the Hubble's livetime considerably with new Gyros and pushing Hubble back up to the shuttle yes maximum elevation. This would allow for overlap with JWST. Without this facility (HST) an entire arm of the astronomy community will be cut off.
Can you imagine if GW told the military, sorry about cancelling those jet-fighter things, don't worry we're gonna build this large wooden badger that's gonna show those silly French guys real good.
