Heard via NASASpaceFlight.com, the Hubble servicing mission (aka the only useful Shuttle flight on the manifest) has been moved up to the 10th of the remaining 17 flights:
The latest available Shuttle mission manifest continues to evolve ahead of an exciting finale for the three NASA orbiters, with the highlight mission of servicing the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) moving up to flight 10 of a 17 mission schedule.
HST-SM04 – STS-125 – has now moved from Endeavour to Discovery, with a new NET (No Earlier Than) launch date of April 11, 2008, moving ahead of STS-119 – ISS Assembly flight 15A – from the previous manifest.
Still, two years is a long dang way off. Hubble is managing fairly well, but if it loses another gyro it’s in trouble. If it loses a second one, it’s unclear if it can be maintained in a stable attitude, meaning it might begin to tumble. That will make a Shuttle docking impossible, rendering moot all the fretting about servicing it. This is the biggest reason, in my mind, that we have to send a service mission to the Grand Lady sooner rather than later.
May 10th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
Why do the gyros fail at such a rythm? They’re always the first thing to go. Why can’t they install gyros with a better endurance? Look at Cassini, it’s been in space for almost 9 years now and as far as I know, its 4 flywheels are still functionning within acceptable tolerance. I don’t know exactly if the difference between gyros and flywheels is significant (they’re both rotating masses used in attitude control), but I’m sure they could install longer living gyros on hubble knowing it’s possible at least.
Is the rapidly changing and alternating temperature between sunlight exposition and Earth shadow an important factor here?
Thanks in advance
May 10th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
I’m not an expert on gyros but first off they are moving parts and they are always moving, another issue with Hubble (as compared to Cassini and other interplanetaries) Hubble enters earth’s shadow every hour or so, with that kind of temperature fluctuation I wonder if that could have some bearing on the longevity of components. On the other hand the hubble was made to be repaired Cassini was not.
May 10th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
NASA’s crazy if they don’t keep Hubble working. It’s their first and best ambassador – even if it might not be delivering the best stuff, people think it is. And people love it.
May 10th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Grand Lady? Are we throwing back to the days when all ships were “she”?
May 10th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
The Hubble looks rather feminine. And it can be moody at times!
I’m glad the servicing mission has been moved up. However no more night launches like the first servicing mission. I remember seeing that one live and it was beautiful!
The gyros have always been failing ever since the beginning. But then again, the repeated stress of holding Hubble in an extremely precise position and all the slewing to different objects is more than probably Cassini’s gyros are subjected to. Hubble is larger than Cassini.
May 11th, 2006 at 4:21 am
One wonders if someone is secretly hoping they will fail so docking will be impossible, that way they do not have to spend money on a service mission
May 11th, 2006 at 6:03 am
I can think of no other single thing that NASA has done to keep sparking the minds of the world. The moon landings were too long ago for todays kids to really care about. The twin rovers are great but information and images are sparse. My Kids and others are ALWAYS amazed by the Hubble Images.
This needs to be moved up even sooner. Do something worthwhile with my tax $$$
May 11th, 2006 at 6:04 am
I can think of no other single thing that NASA has done to keep sparking the minds of the world. The moon landings were too long ago for todays kids to really care about. The twin rovers are great but information and images are sparse. My Kids and others are ALWAYS amazed by the Hubble Images.
This needs to be moved up even sooner. Do something worthwhile with my tax dollars.
May 11th, 2006 at 6:21 am
I hope they keep Hubble up and running as long as is practical.I really enjoy the images it provides.
I’m just a blue collar guy with no backround in astronomy,but I enjoy reading about it and stargazing when I can,(The Chicago area stinks for this!)
May 11th, 2006 at 7:29 am
Cassini has been on its backup gyro since Jupiter.
You would think they could engineer them a bit better than this. I will be surprised if another one on Hubble doesn’t fail in two more years.
May 12th, 2006 at 4:41 am
It will certainly depend on the next two shuttle missions successes. If there are still significant ET foam problems…
Or, the next Congress and President of the USA could extend the space shuttle phase out timeline as private/commercial launch capabilities develop and the advanced RLV’s come online to replace the very expensive space shuttle program.