Sunday, May 02, 2004
ROBOT TO THE RESCUE (FOR HUBBLE)
Here's a piece about a group that has a very well thought-out proposal to save the Hubble Space Telescope with a robotic mission. The proposal is to build a solar-powered xenon/electric-thruster robot at the International Space Station (ISS), which would then use that power to transit to Hubble, capture it and return it to the ISS for servicing. Once refurbished, Hubble would be replaced into a working orbit with the robot. The robot would then return to ISS, where it's solar power capabilities would supplement the ISS's power needs and where it would also serve as a reboost thruster for the ISS.
This is an ingenious proposal and it can work: it uses proven technology and can be accomplished before the 2007-08 shelf-life NASA has defined for Hubble's current hardware. Best of all, it takes advantage of "the best of both worlds," employing robots where humans can't go and humans to do work that robots can't do. To top it off, it's being designed by a private company with technology from all over the world. What's not to like?
For reasons I'll discuss here in a couple of weeks (after a case I have going to trial in mid-May), I have to make nice with NASA right now, so I'll try to be diplomatic: HEY NASA! DO IT!
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 9:48 AM
