NASA delays budget-cut decision about Hubble and Chandra space telescopes

[Admin]

A decision to cut spending on the Hubble Space Telescope by 10% and on the Chandra X-ray Observatory by 40% has been postponed.

NASA delays budget-cut decision about Hubble and Chandra space telescopes : Read more

 

[newtons_laws]

As long as existing launched space telescopes are continuing to return useful scientific data it seems foolish to curtail their operation as a result of budget constraints. The large costs of designing, building and launching them have already been spent, so continuing running the operation of the telescopes must represent the best value in terms of ongoing scientific return per $ now being spent. If budgets are being squeezed then it would arguably be more sensible to cancel or defer new missions.

 

[♥Nyara♥]

As long as existing launched space telescopes are continuing to return useful scientific data it seems foolish to curtail their operation as a result of budget constraints. The large costs of designing, building and launching them have already been spent, so continuing running the operation of the telescopes must represent the best value in terms of ongoing scientific return per $ now being spent. If budgets are being squeezed then it would arguably be more sensible to cancel or defer new missions.

Not just it would be foolish for the capital already spent, but the James Webb Space Telescope recently launched 100% relies on Hubble for the immense majority of its operations, as James Webb can just take infrared and red images, whole Hubble handles all the color spectrum, so most astronomers requires images taken by both on the same areas for a proper context and understanding. James Webb+Hubble duo is producing massive amounts of advances in empirical science.

But, even more foolish is the situation with Chandra. Chandra is literally the only way we can see on X-Rays frequency on space, there is a whole subfield of physics and astronomy dedicated solely to X-Rays, and literally dozen of thousands of professionals relies their whole careers on Chandra keeping operating. If Chandra is canceled, then we will have a massive lose of human capital, and we will need to spend decades again to recover it, if there will ever the political will for that in the future.

And, even more absurd, the professionals, whose careers are fueled by Chandra, are also some of the most prolific and profiting professionals which have impacted positively medicine, computation and other technologies recently. Discarding Chandra is not just a loss of science and human capital, but a literal net negative of money as well, that is returned as increased economic activity through taxes.

Canceling Chandra without a replacement ready is the equivalent of shooting all humanity on the feet, without anybody winning, and everyone taking the shoot.

 

[ultimatewizz]

Not just it would be foolish for the capital already spent, but the James Webb Space Telescope recently launched 100% relies on Hubble for the immense majority of its operations, as James Webb can just take infrared and red images, whole Hubble handles all the color spectrum, so most astronomers requires images taken by both on the same areas for a proper context and understanding. James Webb+Hubble duo is producing massive amounts of advances in empirical science.

But, even more foolish is the situation with Chandra. Chandra is literally the only way we can see on X-Rays frequency on space, there is a whole subfield of physics and astronomy dedicated solely to X-Rays, and literally dozen of thousands of professionals relies their whole careers on Chandra keeping operating. If Chandra is canceled, then we will have a massive lose of human capital, and we will need to spend decades again to recover it, if there will ever the political will for that in the future.

And, even more absurd, the professionals, whose careers are fueled by Chandra, are also some of the most prolific and profiting professionals which have impacted positively medicine, computation and other technologies recently. Discarding Chandra is not just a loss of science and human capital, but a literal net negative of money as well, that is returned as increased economic activity through taxes.

Canceling Chandra without a replacement ready is the equivalent of shooting all humanity on the feet, without anybody winning, and everyone taking the shoot.

Time to ask SpaceX to give a cost estimate for a trip like was made at the end of the Space shuttles run and replace any broken parts and any updates that NASA can think of. Hubble was a disaster when it went up with an incorrectly polished mirror which they fixed by giving it the equivalent of a pair of glasses. They have replaced Gyro's why can they do all that again with SpaceX as a reliable partner. This should be on every news feed to get the public up to speed as to what and why they are contemplating abandonment of the Hubble.