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February 07, 2005
Hubble Trouble
I must admit to mixed feelings about this news report that NASA is now planning to send the Hubble space telescope to a fiery death in 2006. Despite lobbying from a wide range of scientists and space geeks, NASA has decided against sending a mission to upgrade the telescope so it could continue to work after the existing gyroscopes conk out.
My feelings are mixed because Hubble has been a huge success – it has produced an incredible number of pictures that are not only beautiful, but which have taught us lots of things about the nature of the universe. But the fact is that it is getting old, and I’m not convinced that the money a rescue mission would cost is worth it. The fact is that, since Hubble was launched, earth based telescopes have been getting better and better, so now they are nearly as good as Hubble. And if this continues, why bother spending money on an orbiting scope when the cheaper land-based ones are as good?
Posted by baggers at February 7, 2005 03:06 PM