Hubble Space Telescope

Topic(s): science
2004-02-25 23:47:03 PST

After the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, an accident investigation board (CAIB) was formed. The CAIB was tasked with finding the cause of Columbia's malfunction, and finding ways NASA could reduce the risk of losing another shuttle.

CAIB's first task wasn't terribly difficult. Cameras had caught a large chunk of external tank foam slamming into Columbia's wing 81 seconds after liftoff. (The external tank is the huge brown tank to which the shuttle is attached. It holds frozen rocket fuel, and is coated with insulation or foam. During each launch some of the foam breaks free of the external tank; this is expected. What wasn't expected is that the foam could puncture the shuttle.) Empirical testing in a laboratory in San Antonio, Texas proved the external tank foam could easily puncture a shuttle's wing (pictures).

We now move onto task two: recommendations for avoiding another catastrophe. The CAIB had many recommendations. Chief among them were that

1. the shuttle should only launch when another shuttle can launch within three weeks, in case a shuttle in orbit is deemed unfit for reentry and the crew must be rescued, and
2. the shuttle should only travel to places where the underside of the shuttle can be examined for damage - the only such place in space is the International Space Station.

The recommendations had repercussions throughout NASA. The shuttle would be limited in the types of satellites that it could insert into orbit, and existing satellites in orbit could no longer be serviced by the shuttle.

Meantime, the Hubble Space Telescope is orbiting around Earth, due for a shuttle servicing mission within the next couple years. As per CAIB's recommendations, NASA says that won't be happening. And so, within a year or two Hubble will be so broken that it will no longer be able to function.

As a person who is high on science, you'd think I would be greatly upset by Hubble's impending demise. I am not, for three reasons. Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, and Space Interferometer. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is just as powerful as Hubble and will be active for many years. The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was deorbited in 2000. Why did nobody cry for it? Also, I believe the most important telescope is one which has not yet been built, the Space Interferometer.

name:
email:
url:
response: