Hubble is failing x.x

QuantumGravity · Post by **QuantumGravity** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:09 pm

Hmm... is there any reasons why NASA is sending another infrared telescope up there? Isn't the Spitzer enough?

Anyway, I think both the HST and ISS are equally important. Due to Bush's vision to get back to the moon and on to mars, that's probably why they don't see HST importance anymore. ISS would play an important role in sending astronauts to mars.

Post by **zong** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:23 pm

We all love the HST, but life has to go on, we can't hold on to something forever and not let it go. Let's just hope that a new visual telescope can be put up soon enough, that's more powerful than HST

Sam Lee · Post by **Sam Lee** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:41 pm

If they've decided to send service missions for ISS but not for HST, then its really a waste, since servicing HST is so simple that even a robot might be able to do the job. But then again, this is not under our control, so i'll be at home praying that the decision will be changed. Anyway, i'm sure that there'll be much better telescopes already in the making (Large Binocular Telescope, Liverpool Telescopes...), so we don't need to worry about getting HST-quality images.

PL: What we need is a starship capable of faster than light capability!

Regards,
Sam

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 1:35 am

Sam Lee wrote:If they've decided to send service missions for ISS but not for HST, then its really a waste, since servicing HST is so simple that even a robot might be able to do the job. But then again, this is not under our control, so i'll be at home praying that the decision will be changed. Anyway, i'm sure that there'll be much better telescopes already in the making (Large Binocular Telescope, Liverpool Telescopes...), so we don't need to worry about getting HST-quality images.

PL: What we need is a starship capable of faster than light capability!

Regards,
Sam

sam...as a trekker, all you need is a transporter beam!
anyway, the reason why its difficult to send repair teams to the HST is because it is deployed at a very odd altititude and quite a distance from the ISS. Hence any trip to ISS will have to need alot more fuel to change their altitude after servicing the ISS to get to HST.
at present, of course priority for space transports goes to the ISS where there are people there...

Post by **weixing** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 9:52 am

Hi,

Anyway, i'm sure that there'll be much better telescopes already in the making (Large Binocular Telescope, Liverpool Telescopes...), so we don't need to worry about getting HST-quality images.

What those big earth base telescope cannot do that the HST can is those super long exposure that will bring us the image of the deepest part of the universe.

Anyway, latest news is that the NASA Engineers are now looking at whether a robot could fix a 7-year-old spectrograph on Hubble that shut down last week. Also, NASA will be asking US Congress to approve up to $1.6 billion to send a robotic mission up to the Hubble Space Telescope to make repairs and keep it operational for many more years.

Have a nice day.

carlogambino · Post by **carlogambino** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 12:10 pm

hi. No earth base telescope, no matter how big, can compare to a space telescope due to the limiting factor of atmospheric distortion(e.g seeing) even with adaptive optics. Further more, its the US congress that decides HST's fate, not NASA, since it has the money:( So lets cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Sam Lee · Post by **Sam Lee** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:44 pm

Its almost 14 years since HST was launched in 1990s and alot has changed, especially in the technological side. There's quite a couple of ground-based telescopes already in the making (or already deployed) that can easily overtake HST in terms of image quality. What they cannot is like what wei xing said, no superlong exposure please!

Try this link for LBT:
http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbtwww/grvsspc.html

Regards,
Sam

QuantumGravity · Post by **QuantumGravity** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:04 pm

Yeah, ground telescopes can beat HST if they are good enough. Besides the LBT project, there's also another telescope: Giant Megallan Telescope planned, and is supposed to be the largest telescope once its built. In fact, it is known that the Keck telescopes is able to beat HST.

What we need now is an ultraviolet telescope, which HST happens to be the only one able to take photos in that area.

QuantumGravity · Post by **QuantumGravity** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 5:38 pm

http://www.space.com/news/dextre_hubble_040811.html

http://www.space.com/news/hubble_mission_040810.html

carlogambino · Post by **carlogambino** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 9:42 pm

hmm i guess thats cos the adaptive optics of the earth based telescopes has improved