Nasa Plans to Bring Down Hubble

[zavvy]

<b>Nasa Plans to Bring Down Hubble</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />The Hubble Space Telescope and a mission to explore Jupiter's moons look to be the biggest casualties in Nasa's 2006 budget plans outlined on Monday. <br /><br />Under the proposals, a mission to service Hubble would be scrapped and the telescope left to die in orbit. <br /><br />Nasa's total budget would rise 2.4% over 2005 to about $16.5bn, but only $93m would be spent on Hubble. <br /><br />About $75m of that will be aimed at bringing the observatory down to Earth safely, officials have announced. <br /><br />The US space agency (Nasa) has fared better than many government agencies in President George Bush's 2006 budget request. But the White House is not seeking as much money for the space agency as had previously been planned - and that is bad news for Hubble. <br /><br />"Hubble is a spacecraft that is dying," Nasa comptroller Steve Isakowitz said at a briefing in advance of the budget's release. <br /><br />"We have decided that the risks associated with the Hubble servicing at this time don't merit going forward." <br /><br />The multi-billion dollar Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (Jimo) mission was to have been launched in about 2015 as a demonstration for the Project Prometheus nuclear power and propulsion initiative. <br /><br />It would have gone into orbit around the giant planet and its moons, possibly putting landers on their surfaces in much the same way as Cassini has done with Huygens on Titan. <br /><br />Nasa officials now say Jimo is too ambitious an undertaking for an initial demonstration project, and a search for an alternative mission is underway. <br /><br />"These big missions always have ups and downs," commented Professor Fred Taylor, from Oxford University, UK, and a scientist on the Galileo mission to Jupiter in the 1990s. <br /><br />"At this stage it was always just a study - and when approved missions get cancelled, t

 

[mott]

i thought jimo was a great idea.<br />really start testing ion engiens<br />

 

[tap_sa]

<font color="yellow">"About $75m of that will be aimed at bringing the observatory down to Earth safely, officials have announced."</font><br /><br />I guess this 75m is just for designing the forthcoming robotic mission, it's unbeliavable that anything actually happens this cheap. How long does Hubble have before it's orbit decays too much? If it's got at least three years or so then how about gathering that annual $75m for a Hubble-prize? Design and carry out robotic or manned Hubble servicing, win $200m.

 

[kdavis007]

I would rather have NASA spend money on human exploration rather than the Hubble.

 

[bobvanx]

There's a real opportunity here. $75M is cheap money to preserve the Hubble, and that's exactly what a world-wide consortium of philanthropists could fund.<br /><br />The reason is to park Hubble so it can be recovered in a near future of cheaper orbital access. Space colonization is very near the break-out point. Save Hubble, tow it to the Moon, build a museum around it, and our great-grandchildren will thank us for doing so.