NASA has begun a week-long meeting to discuss the possibility of using robots to extend the life of the Hubble Space Telescope. But agency officials say the meeting will focus mainly on ways to simply de-orbit Hubble by guiding it into the atmosphere, crashing it safely into the ocean.
More than 150 scientists and engineers are meeting at NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US, from 21 to 25 March to discuss a 鈥減reliminary design review鈥� for a robotic servicing mission.
The original goal of that meeting was to complete one-third of the planning for such a rescue operation, which could have installed new batteries and stabilising gyroscopes on the 15-year-old telescope. Without the new equipment, the telescope is expected to fail in 2007.
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But in a 7 February 2005 briefing on NASA鈥檚 budget request for 2006, outgoing NASA chief Sean O鈥橩eefe announced the agency was dropping plans to pursue robotic servicing. He cited a National Academy of Sciences report that argued a robotic mission would have a slim chance of success and could probably not be launched in time to save the telescope.
鈥淭he overall review effort planned for next month will look at the baseline mission to safely de-orbit,鈥� O鈥橩eefe said at the time.
鈥淐losing-down activities鈥�
鈥淭he main focus is to look at de-orbit-only options,鈥� agrees Edward Weiler, Goddard鈥檚 director. But he says work on the servicing options will also be discussed 鈥渟o we have a full inventory of what we鈥檝e accomplished鈥�, he told 快猫短视频. Such an inventory could benefit future space missions that 鈥� similar to a Hubble rescue 鈥� would need to dock autonomously with other spacecraft, he says.
鈥淲e were already well on the road to a full preliminary design review when the budget came out, so these are closing-down activities,鈥� he says.
But NASA may not have the final word on Hubble鈥檚 fate. Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland 鈥� and others in both houses of Congress 鈥� have come out in support of a Hubble servicing mission.
On 2 March, Mikulski sent a letter to NASA鈥檚 acting administrator, Frederick Gregory, demanding that NASA spend the entire $291 million Congress appropriated for a servicing mission in 2005. 鈥淎ny attempt to cancel, terminate or suspend servicing activity would be a violation of the law unless it has the approval of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees,鈥� she wrote.
Forced rescue
And the US Congress鈥檚 science committee could introduce legislation to force a rescue mission 鈥� using either robots or astronauts. The committee is awaiting several reports from NASA that will inform their decision, which could come as early as April 2005.
These include a rundown of the number of space shuttle missions required to finish the International Space Station and a report on the risks of a shuttle servicing mission to Hubble. NASA cited this risk assessment in defending its January 2004 decision to cancel an astronaut repair mission, but critics have alleged that no such formal report exists.
鈥淣othing is really clear at this point, but we鈥檙e getting closer to the point when the committee could step in,鈥� says Joseph Pouliot, communications director for the committee鈥檚 chairman, Sherwood Boehlert.
鈥淎nd members of Congress will be waiting to hear from the new administrator to hear what his views are on this,鈥� Pouliot told 快猫短视频.
The White House has nominated Mike Griffin, currently the director of space at Johns Hopkins University鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory, for the NASA administrator post. Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination could begin in April 2005.
