Hubble Just Shut Down and Is Fighting for Its Survival

I hope they invest whatever funds are necessary to fix it. What a shame to see it go down.

originally posted by: Terpene
First arecibo, now huble...

Could it be that funds are rerouted to modern projects?

heard talks about using craters on the moon.

Like the James webb telescope, which was started in 1996 with the goal of replacing the hubble?

Last I heard, it's a few billion over budget and still slated to launch "any month now"


The hubble is depending on computers built in something like 1982. My understanding is that the active one shut down- fourty years isn't a bad run!
I am also to understand there's a fully redundant backup in place, but NASA would have to switch to it remotely. It sounds like they're working on doing just that, but its possible they want to try and remotely fix the primary one first.

My guess is they'll have it back up and running in a week or two- but getting it replaced would give us a whole new world of perspective on what there is to see out there.

originally posted by: Phantom423
I hope they invest whatever funds are necessary to fix it. What a shame to see it go down.

I'd assume it's several times cheaper to build a new telescope and launch it than to train, ready, and lUnch a manner mission into space to rendez-vous with a small object and conduct a space walk repair....or is that totally DUH and you meant from earth?

i was in middle school and remember the Hubble debut. At that time we weren't going to the moon anymore, hadn't detected any exoplanets, and space seemed to be boring. Once the deep field picture came out space would never be boring again. I was shocked, I stared at it for hours just thinking of how many strange things have to be out there.

The Hubble has produced the most spectacularly beautiful images of the universe. Many of those shots have been wallpaper on my computers for years. IMO the Hubble and the ISS were the two crowning achievements made possible by the shuttle program. It will be sad to see it go but hopefully it will push the Webb into priority.

a reply to: 727Sky

Lenny, Bowie, Malcolm, Tom Petty, Prince, Eddie VH, and now Hubble!!

All the old rock stars are dying!!



Jimi’s jam band keeps on getting bigger…

originally posted by: Terpene
First arecibo, now huble...

Could it be that funds are rerouted to modern projects?

heard talks about using craters on the moon.

Likely especially if funding is tight, which Id imagine it would be in this political climate.

Still, it's also interesting to think they are shutting down our listening and watching posts, because of an imminent secret visit from delegates from the galactic federation...

a reply to: putnam6

Yes I remember that observatory that go raided with an incredible contingency, because of pedophilia...

Interesting tangent thought.

a reply to: 727Sky

R.I.P Hubble, you done a Mans job sir, and then some for far longer than you were intended.

Shame nobody has a working shuttle that we could send up a team of engineers to fix/update the equipment all the same.

Maybe if we got off our arses and colonised low earth orbit in any sort of meaningful manner problems such as this could be mitigated.

a reply to: gortex

Servicing a 30 year old telescope that still makes discoveries with a software patch is VERY much worth it.

Just because JWT is potentially coming online soon does not mean Hubble has no place. Heck, we would make use of 100 telescopes not just 2.

The fix for this is the experience of NASA and the logistics of Elon Musk.
It just has to be an unsung charter for SpaceX to step up and help save this great instrument. Today, I think it would take both of them to pull this off, and certainly with great support of the public.

a reply to: 727Sky

I hope they recover it some time soon and bring it back to earth to repair it and repurpose it and send it back out there