Re: OT- why come home empty handed?
- From: Davoud <star@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:27:18 -0400
mark_digital© wrote:
The Hubble space telescope is a historical piece of equipment. Would it
make more sense to load it into the space shuttle bay and bring it home and
display it for generations to come than to let it burn up? I'd love to visit
the Smithsonian Institute and see it in person.
That would be great. The HST was not designed to be returned to Earth
intact, however; the Shuttle couldn't land with it aboard. To have
designed it in such a way that it could be brought back would have
meant making it smaller, lighter, and less capable.
It would be possible to launch multiple shuttle missions to disassemble
the HST and return it in pieces. This could be done only if practically
unlimited funds were available and if the Shuttle weren't a death trap.
Even if such a venture didn't cost any priceless lives, it would make
the HST the most expensive museum piece in history; probably worth more
than all the world's Rembrandts put together!
More practical would be to fabricate a replica from parts that were
removed from the HST during servicing missions, spares, simulator
parts, a donated mirror, and some new fabrications. That could be done
for less than the price of a single Rembrandt, and it would be a
fitting tribute to what has been the single most important scientific
instrument in history.
Davoud
--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com
.
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- From: mark_digital©
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