Re: Save the Hubble

From: Mathieu Fregeau (mfregeau_at_u.washington.edu)
Date: 02/25/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 10:45:28 -0800

"Keith Williams" <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c890a91af5f576b989948@news.individual.net...
> In article <g7kq11142o7scaq3egfdssi90ldhavc91k@4ax.com>,
> speffSNIP@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat says...
>> On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 21:48:29 -0500, the renowned keith
>> <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:
>>
>> >On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 02:17:18 +0000, Jim Yanik wrote:
>> >
>> >> "Mathieu Fregeau" <mfregeau@u.washington.edu> wrote in
>> >> news:cvilae$vm0$1@gnus01.u.washington.edu:
>> >>
>> >>> If you can give $2 billion to NASA, they will save Hubble. Money is
>> >>> the only reason why they don't do it.
>> >>
>> >> No,it's the fear of another loss of a Shuttle and crew.
>> >
>> >Exactly. It's politics, not money. Any monitary considerations were
>> >decided by politics *long* ago.
>>
>> AFAIUI, there's only a couple of shuttles left in flyable condition
>> (Atlantis and Discovery). Pretty much the end game on the shuttle.
>
> What happened to Endeavour? According to NASA it's still operational.
>
> http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/orbiters.html

Yea, Endeavor, like Atlantis and Discovery, are the remaining space
shuttles. NASA has reviewed the engineering and safety issues on the
remaining space shuttles, and that's why they had delayed the space shuttle
use. Don't you follow the news?

Those space shuttle were designed to be used and maintained until 2020, but
after the Columbia accident, they decided to stop their use by 2010 and use
a new generation (which they currently are developping). I guess they will
use the new generation until 2040 or 2050 (since the actual space shuttle
program has been in use since 1981, and by 2010 will make a 30 years
service, the new generation would be assumed to run for 30 or 40 years too).
The challenge with the new generation is to make their use less expensive.
The actual shuttle cost about $100M per mission, they want to reduce it
close to $10M per mission with the new generation. That's what a called an
engineering challenge!

---------
Mathieu Fregeau
University of Washington
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Aerospace Research Building - Box 352250
Seattle, WA 98195-2250
Phone (office): 206-543-1070
Phone (lab): 206-616-5557
Fax: 206-543-4719
mfregeau@u.washington.edu

>
> --
> Keith

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Everything Old Is New Again
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