NASA: Hubble headed for 'deorbit only'

[Ripley]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/04/01/hubble.deorbit/index.html

(SPACE.com) -- A major review last week of servicing the Hubble Space Telescope has led NASA officials to a "deorbit only" position.

That's an outcome from an intensive preliminary design review held last week at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

snip>>>>>

"The NASA position is we are not contemplating continuing the telerobotic servicing mission," said the space agency's program executive for the Hubble Robotic Servicing Mission, Mark Borkowski, who also led last week's review. "We are planning to convert to a deorbit-only mission," he told SPACE.com.

Borkowski said that those engaged in working toward the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) did a "super job". But he mirrored the view of an earlier National Academy of Sciences look at Hubble servicing options. That blue-ribbon panel study took the position that the chance of success for a robotic makeover of Hubble was remote.

It will be a sad day when Hubble crashes into the ocean. I've enjoyed the images it has taken over the years. See this site: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

[WillyT]

1. Complete And Utter Assholes !!!

Short-Sighted Shits, too !!!

:grr::nuke::mad:

[niceypoo]

32. They are afraid they might find God........

You know how these idiots are when it comes to science.

[struggle4progress]

33. Yep.

[daleo]

2. It frees up money for space weapons.

And prevents religious 6000 year old earthers from having to see pictures that could cause cognitive dissonance.

[Ripley]

4. And get this...

In a joint statement released this week, Mars Society president Robert Zubrin and Space Frontier Foundation founder, Rick Tumlinson, called upon NASA "to do what is necessary and mount a human mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope."

"The technology simply does not exist to repair and upgrade Hubble using robotic or tele-robotic means. This leaves NASA with a clear choice: either send astronauts to repair and upgrade Hubble as originally planned, or lose the greatest astronomical observatory ever built," their joint press release explained.

How the hell can NASA proceed with Smirkaholic's Manned Mission to Mars when they can't even mount a manned mission to HST?

[papau]

5. chance of success for a robotic makeover of Hubble was remote - so Human

mission is not discussed?

Congress had better order NASA to go human to HST.

[daleo]

14. NASA's mission to Mars

We will be snowshoeing to the Winter Olympics in Hell before that ever happens.

[havocmom]

3. What great things will not be seen due to short sightedness?

Galileo weeps

Yet there is money to throw away for tac cuts to people who don't need them and gadgets that nobody needs

[BillZBubb]

6. We don't need no stinkin' space pictures!

All we need to know about the universe is in the Bible. The Hubble is just liberal junk science trying to attack Jesus.

[n2doc]

7. Deorbit ISS instead

That idiotic space station is going to be the only thing driving shuttle missions soon. Very little good science takes place there. But it takes a huge amount of resources to keep going.
Of course, more money for Boeing and the rest of the contractors in ISS...

[Dudley_DUright]

18. I'm with you n2doc

The ISS is a total waste of money and has no scientific purpose whatsoever. BTW, welcome to DU. :hi:

[MadHound]

8. It just blows me away that with all the money that has been invested

In Hubble, with all the quality results we've gotten from the project, these assholes are ready to let it all crash into the ocean(hopefully) after only fifteen years. I just don't get it:shrug:

[Javaman]

9. Anything good, they destroy, anything destroyed they keep...

Kinda like Iraq, huh?

[jbnow]

10. NO!

I knew this was coming, but I react with anger and grief.

To be filled with wonder is priceless but the potential for learning and understanding was enormous too.

But if we made a list of things this administration is unmoved by wonder, scientific learning and understanding would be on that list.

[ladjf]

11. Hubble was discovering more abut the Universe than the

"fundies" wanted to know. "Better shut that thing down, quickly. There's no telling what all it might find out."

[Bake]

26. If Hubble were worth a damn, it would take a picture of God.

(sarcasm mode off). I think the RR is afraid Hubble would look all around the universe and "miss" the Pearlie Gates.

Bake

[ladjf]

28. Seriously, I think when the scientists start talking about taking

photographs of the Universe when it was only a few hundred thousand years old, the fundies just lose it. That makes no sense. How could the photos be of something 17 billion years ago when the Universe was create 4,000 years ago? They don't understand and don't want to.

[Tansy_Gold]

30. You need to get your facts straight

The universe was not created 4000 years ago.

It was created 6009 years ago, in October 4004 BC, according to Bishop Ussher.

<snip>
The date forever tied to Bishop Ussher appears in the first paragraph of the first page of The Annals. Ussher wrote: “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, which beginning of time, according to this chronology, occurred at the beginning of the night which preceded the 23rd of October in the year 710 of the Julian period.” In the right margin of the page, Ussher computes the date in “Christian” time as 4004 B.C.

<end snip>

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/ussher.html


:sarcasm:

[ladjf]

31. Guilty. I must admit that I'm not fully versed in the precise

calculations of Creationism. Thanks for the update.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. We don't need no Fucking science

Thu Bahbul tell us all we kneed ta now.

Praise jaaaaayzus.

[Kitsune]

13. what a tremendous waste

Unbelievable.

[ninty]

16. Unbelievable is right

I'm an amateur astronomer and this news angered me when I fist heard about it. I just can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to keep the telescope operating. Hubble is our window into vastness of space. I guess that doesn't matter to some.

[Zenlitened]

15. Allegedly, "new and better" telescopes are going to replace Hubble

But is there any reason to be confident the launches will ever actually take place?

:grr:

[shireen]

17. not exactly

The new generation of telescopes are different (narrower science goals, types of targets, wavelength regions). Hubble will remain unique for a very long time.

[ReadTomPaine]

19. The EU should send an ESA mission, fix it and claim it as salvage.

Would be a nice message to send to GOP-NASA.

RTP

[gtar100]

20. Now *that* would be cool!

[ReadTomPaine]

21. Wouldn't be a bad move for the EU geopolitically either.

It would show how we've slid from our heyday of 60's space exploration into our current navel gazing, retrograde status in the sciences.

It could also secure quite a nice plate of future space related contracts for the EU as well. There is so much disillusionment over this I could see senior Hubble scientists leaving for jobs overseas to work with the telescope again.

RTP

[VegasWolf]

22. We don't need no stinkin science, Jeebus is wut makes TVs work.n/t

[ozone_man]

23. I would support a manned servicing flight.

"The technology simply does not exist to repair and upgrade Hubble using robotic or tele-robotic means. This leaves NASA with a clear choice: either send astronauts to repair and upgrade Hubble as originally planned, or lose the greatest astronomical observatory ever built," their joint press release explained.

Their statement explained that if the space frontier is to be opened, "it can only be done through courage. A decision to mount a human mission to repair Hubble would send a signal that the spirit that built this nation is alive and well."

There will be some dead time before the next one goes up and who knows if the new one will have the same coverage as Hubble. I would rather pay my tax dollars used to support Hubble and not to pay for the Iraq war. Neocon priorities. :eyes:

[Redstone]

24. It's a miracle! A post with 23 replies,

and I agree with every single one of them.

Of all the stupid things theis administration has done, this is right up near the top of the list.

Ah, but don't despair; We're going to Mars! Remember, our Fearful Leader said we were, so be ready for it! You'll forget all about the Hubble when you see that glorious flight happen.

Redstone

[ReadTomPaine]

27. Bush would likely make the urban legend true and fake a Mars mission.

For pure PR purposes. Call it 'faith based space exploration'. Why not? He's already done far worse for far less reason.

RTP

[Gloria]

25. The less we know, the better the fundies like it.....

who needs science except when it comes to oil drilling or building bombs? Applied science is all this bunch knows, fundamental research, who cares?

[ladjf]

29. The very last things the fundies want is FACTS. They are too

busy making up stuff.