Space Shuttle, Not Robot, Should Be Used to Service Telescope

From: Scott M. Kozel (kozelsm_at_attbi.com)
Date: 12/09/04 

Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2004 19:59:33 -0500

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47898-2004Dec8.html

"Panel Questions Hubble Mission - Space Shuttle, Not Robot, Should Be
Used to Service Telescope"
_Washington Post_ - December 8, 2004

A leading panel of experts handed NASA's leadership a sharp reproof
today, concluding that the space shuttle should be used to service the
Hubble Space Telescope and can do the job without posing unacceptable
risks to shuttle astronauts.

The experts also said in a long-awaited report that NASA's plan to
service the telescope with a robot working from an unmanned spacecraft
was unrealistic, posing technical challenges so complex that they will
be "unlikely" to be resolved in time to prevent Hubble from shutting
down.

The report, prepared for NASA by the independent National Research
Council, a division of the National Academies of Science, was certain to
reopen debate over NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe's January decision to
cancel a scheduled shuttle servicing mission because of the risks to
astronauts.

O'Keefe's announcement, essentially condemning the popular telescope to
death sometime around 2008, provoked national outrage, and NASA
subsequently decided to mount a robotic mission by the end of 2007 to
replace batteries and gyroscopes, add two new instruments and possibly
replace a third.

Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have
acknowledged that the mission is one of the most complex space endeavors
ever attempted, but have grown increasingly optimistic about their
ability to accomplish the task, largely because of the skills of a
Canadian-built robot nicknamed "Dextre."

The council's panel, however, reviewed all the tasks associated with the
mission, and concluded that "the likelihood of successful development of
the [Hubble] robotic servicing mission within the baseline 39-month . .
. schedule is remote."

Instead, today's report said, the panel agreed with a private Aerospace
Corporation analysis prepared for NASA that suggested "that a successful
mission of this level of complexity would require a nominal development
time of the order of 65 months" -- in 2010.

The panel's report also sharply disagreed with O'Keefe's assessment that
the space shuttle could not fly to Hubble and still be in compliance
with the risk reduction recommendations of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board, the independent panel convened after the space
shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentry last year.

In order to fulfill the accident board's recommendation that shuttle
crews be able to perform on-board damage inspections and repairs if
needed, NASA has decided that the orbiter will travel only to the
International Space Station, where astronauts can assist with
inspections, provide tools and offer a "safe haven" for shuttle
astronauts if they had to abandon the spacecraft.

The panel's report, however, said that astronauts on a shuttle mission
to Hubble in 2006 or 2007 would have their ability to inspect and repair
the orbiter with the aid of sensors and spacewalks, and could "power
down" the shuttle in a cocoon-like safe haven mode for up to 30 days,
and could get an additional 15 days with modifications that would take
two years to install.

Shuttle astronauts have serviced the 14-year-old orbiting Hubble
telescope before, including a mission in 1993 that repaired a critical
flaw in its main mirror, rescuing the program from an embarrassing
manufacturing defect.

NASA asked the National Research Council, which convenes panels of
nationally known experts to study scientific questions posed by
government agencies, to examine the space agency's plans for Hubble in
March.

[end of article]

Relevant Pages