Re: OT What is the big deal about Hubble danger?

On May 15, 6:31 pm, aemeijers <aemeij...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
George wrote:
mm wrote:
OT  What is the big deal about Hubble danger?  The news keeps talking
about how dangerous the Hubble telescope repair is, and NASA set up a
second shuttle on the launch pad right after the first one took off.

This is the third repair mission to Hubble in in the past 19 years.
Weren't the other two the same as this one, just the Space Shuttle and
nothing else?

The contingency plan on all shuttle missions after Columbia is that if
they reach orbit and find tile/hull damage they could dock at the ISS
and wait for a ride back. Hubble is in a higher and different
inclination orbit than the ISS.  Atlantis needs to achieve the same
orbit as Hubble for the Hubble service mission (STS-125). After doing so
they have no way to get to the ISS if they discover tile/hull damage.
Then the only way home is for Endeavour to be launched on STS-400 into a
similar orbit as Atlantis where they can rendezvous and move the
Atlantis crew onto  Endeavour.

Keep your fingers crossed. If they lose another one, even if they save
the crew somehow, US manned space flight is likely over. I'm expecting
our new prez to pull the plug on Bush's somewhat silly son-of-Apollo
moon/Mars program anyway,

No need to worry about that. Obama has the whole program under review
with the goal to accelerate and exapnd it. The administration is
talking about manned missions back to the moon and going to Mars.


and the current financial crisis plus another
lost ship, would be the perfect excuse to say 'Maybe someday, but not
right now'.

The Obama solution to the "financial crisis" is to spend sums
unthinkable just a year ago on a whole host of things we can't pay
for. Expanding the space program fits right in. As one small
example of the reckless spending going on, the govt is planning on
spending $60mil for a memorial park in PA where the United 911 flight
crashed. If you can justify that, surely you can justify anything.


And once they stop, and the team gets laid off, the odds of
it all starting back up are slim and none.

(I'm not a big fan of son-of-Apollo concept. Yes, expendables will
likely be cheaper per launch that the mismanaged Shuttle program. But
IMHO, it is a step backwards, to old technology. We need to find a cheap
reliable way to boost reusables to orbit.)

--
aem sends...

.

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