Goodbye Hubble

[Marc P.]

The James Webb Telescope looks like it will be a great tool, but it's designed primarily to operate in the infrared band, and can't cover as much spectrum as the Hubble currently can. It would be a great compliment to the Hubble, but it really can't function as a drop-in replacement. It's also not planned to launch until August of 2011, and that's a long time to go without searching the stars for clues to the origins of the universe.

[dlavery]

To quote Eric Idle, "I'm not dead yet!"

Hubble is still up and going strong. Based on the latest projections, the current batteries will last until at least late 2007 or early 2008, and may survive longer than that. At the current failure rates, the telescope may have at least two gyros through that period (and they have been working on a technique to maintain three-axis stability with just two gyros, so the gyro problem may be even further mitigated).

Current plans for a robotic servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope may or may not be successful for a full servicing mission which would replace the batteries, gyros, and upgrade the instrument suite with new Wide Field Camera-3, replacing the current WFPC-2. But the minimum mission to capture and stabilize the telescope in preparation for either a controlled re-entry at some future time or moving it to a safe parking orbit for later servicing has a very high probability of being pulled off. But whether the White House includes the funding to implement either of these options in the next budget remains to be seen, according to the latest reports.

We are also going to be getting a new Administrator at NASA, as Sean O'Keefe has announced he is leaving to become chancellor at LSU. No one knows who the next adminsitrator will he. But it has been made clear that they can expect to receive a lot of lobbying from many fronts to reconsider the possibility of a human servicing mission to Hubble once the Space Shuttle starts flying again. That has come from small vocal groups of amateur astronomers all the way to the National Academy of Sciences. If either this mission or a successful robotic servicing mission should ever happen, then extending the life of the telescope for several years would be a distinct possibility.

Given all that, it may be a bit early to start writing the epitaph for Hubble.

-dave

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Marc P.

The James Webb Telescope looks like it will be a great tool, but it's designed primarily to operate in the infrared band, and can't cover as much spectrum as the Hubble currently can.

The Hubble currently can sense in the wavelength range of 0.11 microns to 1.1 microns (1 order of magnitude). The JWST has two instruments to cover the range 0.5 microns to 28 microns (1.75 orders of magnitude). So no, it isn't a drop-in replacement, but it covers MORE of the EM spectrum. Remember, there is a lot more out there then just visible light.