Budget rumours hint at Hubble trouble

[Neil D]

[:"blue"] Here we are where we can get some great views of space, and Nasa can't get funded....Why is that? Is there something inherantly flawed and the public doesn't need to know about it, so let's destroy it? Is it just because it's better to rebuild a new system every 25 years? Why destroy something when we could maintainence it? Here is where John Q. Public can't figure out the goverment! We want a space telescope up there, so why cant we just maintain the one we got instead of 're-inventing the wheel" again? [/]

The future of the Hubble Space Telescope is once again mired in confusion and controversy over media reports that NASA's 2006 budget will not include a mission to repair the ageing instrument.

The reports quote unnamed officials from the White House and US Congress. But NASA will not confirm or deny the reports until 7 February 2005, when the budget will be sent to Congress.

Astronomers and others have campaigned hard to save the productive but ailing instrument, proposing robot- or astronaut-based repair missions. The 14-year-old telescope is expected to fail in 2007 or 2008 unless it receives new batteries and gyroscopes.

But the type of servicing mission sent to Hubble has been the centre of controversy since January 2004. That is when NASA's boss, Sean O'Keefe, cancelled a planned shuttle repair mission, saying it posed too great a risk astronauts in the wake of the Columbia shuttle disaster.

However, a massive public outcry prompted O'Keefe to announce in August that NASA would pursue a mission to repair - and possibly upgrade - the telescope using robots. The controversy re-ignited in December 2004, when a prestigious panel of astronomers and industry leaders backed a plan to send astronauts to fix Hubble. But O'Keefe held firm.

Hubble trouble

[Dr. Shane]

Good. I vote to cut NASA's budget to 0.

[bevin]

I'd agree with you about the manned space program. It is a complete waste of money.

The unmanned program has had huge scientific,economic, and military benefits that might not have been achieved with a purely private-sector program.

/Bevin

[Amelia]

Last I heard, end of last week, Hubble is now scrap and its re-entry is being planned.

[Ron Lambert]

The Hubble telescope has proven itself well worth the investment many times over in the knowledge it has provided us concerning the universe inwhich we all live, and concerning the laws governing the cosmos which affect us all. I would hate to see it scrapped or allowed to fail through neglect.

Perhaps the telescope caught sight of something in Orion that could be construed as a vast procession of heavenly beings preparing for a trip to Earth.