Comments on: Hubble on the road to recovery

By: Hubble Telescope, back on the air! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Hubble Telescope, back on the air! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:02:33 +0000

[...] when engineers were trying to restore Hubble back to speed after a major piece of hardware failed. They were able to get a backup piece working, but other problems delayed the operation. Now, however, things are looking good, and it looks like [...]

By: Steve A

Steve A — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:27:14 +0000

@Charles Boyer

I believe you are correct here. If you keep your eyes on all the space science blogs and websites, like Space.com, New Scientist, ScienceNOW, Alan Boyle’s Cosmic Log, Science News, Universe Today, not to mention here, it’s almost hard to go a week without some find that is related to the telescope. Spitzer also is producing a lot of news, BTW.

What’s even better about Hubble is even when it was “down” it was still working. Without the cameras it can still do astrometry using the guidance system. Usually these projects are done when the telescope is moving from one target to another, but now they’ve had weeks of dedicated measurements. Nothing is ever wasted.

By: Fluffy Bunny

Fluffy Bunny — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:46:29 +0000

Phil, it’s easy enough to create a feed for a site you’re interested in. Check out these resources: http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/03/09/how_to_create_a_rss.htm

By: Charles Boyer

Charles Boyer — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:19:32 +0000

Once again, HST lives. That’s fantastic news, because this one instrument has possibly made more discoveries than any other one single instrument in human history. Seriously — name a single tool that’s done as much. If HST isn’t on the top, it is on a very short and very exclusive list.

Anyway, I had the pleasure of seeing a fully stacked and darn-near launch-ready Atlantis last week as she rolled to storage in the VAB, where patiently, she waits. Even though the Shuttle system is the Flying Compromise, is early 70’s tech and was the Booby Prize instead of a Mars effort it is still a beautiful system up close and personal. Somehow I doubt The Stick (Ares-I) will be as interesting from a visual standpoint. I do hold out hope for Ares-V, if it is ever built.

Finally, a challenge to Dawkins and all of the other “human flight is a waste of time” crew. Please ’splain to us how a robot could fly up and repair Hubble cheaper and as effectively.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:00:25 +0000

Question: Referring to your post of 9/29/08, Side B is up and running?

By: Cheyenne

Cheyenne — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:19:39 +0000

Great news! I knew Hubble would have it in her to keep going!

Hopefully the next Shuttle mission up there will go off without a hitch. World class job NASA!

By: ccpetersen

ccpetersen — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:58:37 +0000

Moving the childish troll aside so the adults can resume talking…

I kept checking all weekend to see if new updates on HST’s condition had been posted and ran across the tersely worded Update #7 and posted about it on Saturday. But, there wasn’t much more to it than “it’s coming back folk and we’re going to start science work again real soon now so look for a picture next week sometime”… which I posted.

Yes, HST’s got a place in my heart and always will. It helped get me through grad school and eventually I wrote a book about HST science… got to know the thing inside and out, although not to the level of some of the engineers I got to know, who are/were marvelous in their ability to make the telescope dance the way it need to dance.

So, waiting anxiously for the next picture.