DON’T GROUND HUBBLE

Fifteen years after its launch, the Hubble Space Telescope continues to exceed the expectations of astronomers and other scientists. But without needed repairs and upgrades, the telescope could go dark within three years. NASA should not allow that to happen.

Last year, the director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said it was too expensive and risky to repair the telescope. The plan at the time was to disable the telescope and let it fall to the ocean. This appeared to be Hubble’s fate when the White House failed to include funding for a repair mission in NASA budget for next year.

The new NASA director, Michael Griffin, has said he will reconsider that decision. In the meantime, the telescope continues to send breathtaking and, more importantly, scientifically revealing pictures back to Earth as it orbits 353 miles overhead.

Without Hubble, says University of Maine astronomy professor Neil Comins, scientists would have continued to use faulty assumptions about the universe. Hubble helped set them on the right track, making for better science.

Through Hubble’s findings, astronomers learned that the universe is much older – 13.7 billion years – than they thought. The telescope also found supernovas, evidence of past cosmic activity, in places where astronomers did not expect them and Hubble discovered planets orbiting other stars. “It would slow us down tremendously if it were taken off line,” Professor Comins says.

In its 15 years in orbit, the Hubble has taken snapshots of the universe shortly after it was formed in the Big Bang and made crucial contributions to the study of the “dark energy” responsible for accelerating the expansion of the universe. More than 4,000 scientific papers have been produced from Hubble research, making the telescope one of the most important scientific instruments ever built.

The telescope’s batteries need replacing and three of its gyroscopes need to be repaired. If this does not happen, Hubble will shut down in 2007. At one time NASA has suggested a robotic mission to repair the telescope, but this was dropped after a National Academy of Sciences panel said such technology could not be developed fast enough to save Hubble.

That left a manned mission as the only hope for Hubble. With the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia two years ago, manned missions were put on hold while safety concerns were addressed. However, the shuttle Discovery is slowly moving toward launch for a mission to the international space station. From a scientific perspective, much more is to be gained by repairing Hubble than by a mission to the space station, although both are risk, Professor Comins says.

If all goes well with Discovery’s flight, a mission to Hubble should be next on the docket.