Re: Griffin also hints at Orion visit to Hubble


Craig Fink wrote:
One man's trash, is another man's treasure.

Have you been to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum lately? If you
haven't, you should go. It's a great Museum. But, in the area of
satellites, it seemed to be lacking a little. Models instead of artifacts.


There is nothing I'd love more than to walk into a museum and see a
shuttle orbiter resting alongside HST. Over three years ago I was
convinced I'd one day see Columbia sitting right next to HST in the
Smithsonian.

Then we got a wakeup as to the deep flaws in the only vehicle that can
currently retreive HST.

Whether it's is brought down relatively soon at the cost of billions of
dollars (and put into the Smithsonian), or brought down later (50-100)
years at the cost of millions of dollars, the Hubble is a treasure. Like
the Hope Diamond, or the Mona Lisa. Not everything in Orbit is trash at
the end of the mission.

No, it is not trash. Neither was the first rickity boat that some
people built thousands of years ago and decided to try traveling on
water.

In the buisness of discovery practicality outweighs sentimentality. I
just don't see a way that it can be safely retrieved now (no point to
launching a shuttle on a dangerous mission to pick up something for the
sake of sentimentality). And as for later, when and if NASA attaches a
de-orbit module, I'd imagine it'd be simpler and cheaper (ie: require
less fuel) to stick a rocket on the thing to send it crashing back to
the cradle, than to attach something to it to fire it into a currently
irretreavable orbit.

-A.L.

.

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