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Coloradans Join Effort to Save Hubble Space Telescope

Posted on: Tuesday, 8 February 2005, 09:00 CST

Colorado scientists and lawmakers vowed Monday to continue the fight to save the Hubble Space Telescope, despite NASA's decision to abandon all rescue efforts.

NASA Administrator Sean

O'Keefe said Monday that no money will be spent in the coming fiscal year to send robots or astronauts to repair and upgrade the aging Earth-orbiting observatory.

Instead, NASA plans to spend $93 million to develop ways to prolong Hubble's life by sending commands from Earth, and to bring it safely into the ocean when it dies.

O'Keefe's comments came during a briefing on the space agency's $16.46 billion budget proposal - a 2.4 percent increase over last year - for fiscal year 2006.

Two Boulder-built, next-generation Hubble science instruments with a combined price tag of $170 million are awaiting installation on the telescope. Under O'Keefe's plan, that work wouldn't be done.

"I'm extremely disappointed by the decision," University of Colorado astronomer James Green said.

"But it's not the first budget that matters, it's the last budget. We'll see what Congress does," he said. "This is a call to action, not a call to resignation."

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said Monday that the Hubble battle is far from over.

"I will fight to make sure there is adequate funding for keeping Hubble alive and for making it more productive than it has ever been," said Udall, a member of the House science committee.

Green chairs CU's astrophysical and planetary sciences department and led the team that designed and built the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph with Ball Aerospace & Technologies of Boulder. Ball also built Wide Field Camera 3, the other instrument awaiting installation.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and is considered the most powerful space observatory ever built.

It has enabled astronomers to precisely measure the size and age of the universe, uncovered massive black holes in the center of galaxies, and provided key evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Over the years, spacewalking astronauts have conducted four servicing missions to maintain and upgrade the telescope. The two new Colorado-built cameras were to have been installed during a fifth planned servicing mission.

But in January 2004, nearly a year after the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew, O'Keefe concluded that the Hubble flight is too risky. The telescope will be allowed to die in 2007 or 2008, he said then.

The decision sparked an outcry from astronomers, space enthusiasts and some members of Congress. Some "Hubblehuggers" began pushing for a robotic mission to save the telescope.

NASA agreed to study the idea.

O'Keefe asked the National Academy of Sciences to assess the feasibility of robotic and human rescue missions to Hubble.

In December, an academy panel concluded that a robotic rescue would be costly, complex and filled with uncertainty. The chances of successfully executing such a mission before Hubble breaks down are "remote," the panel concluded.

The academy panel urged the space agency to send shuttle astronauts to fix Hubble.

On Monday, O'Keefe repeated his long-held view that a human rescue mission is too risky. Given the academy's conclusion that a robotic effort is likely to fail, the sensible path is to abandon both ideas, he said.

O'Keefe is stepping down as NASA administrator this month. Green said O'Keefe's successor may have different views about Hubble's fate, another reason to remain optimistic.

Source: Rocky Mountain News

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