EXTENDING HUBBLE’S LIFE

Because of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers and the public have a much better understanding of our universe. So it is welcome news that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to repair the telescope rather than letting it fall into the ocean.

Last week, NASA announced that a 2008 space shuttle flight would be dedicated to fixing the 16-year-old telescope. After the 2003 shuttle Columbia disaster, the agency ruled out a manned mission to fix Hubble because of safety concerns and a robotic repair operation was deemed not practical by the National Academy of Sciences. So NASA decided in 2004 to disable the orbiting telescope and let it fall into the ocean.

The reversal of policy, after two successful shuttle flights, was met with cheers from astronomers and other scientists. Without the repair mission, Hubble’s batteries and gyroscopes would stop functioning near the end of the decade. The repair mission will extend the telescope’s life at least until 2013.

Without Hubble, University of Maine astronomy professor Neil Comins said last year, 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, astron-omers 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 said.

After Hubble was launched in 1990, it sent back fuzzy pictures because of problems with an optics mirror. The problem was fixed during a 1993 shuttle mission to service the telescope. Three other missions to the telescope installed new equipment and replaced aged components.

In its 16 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. There are seven times more requests for time on the telescope than can be accommodated.

Hubble will not only be saved by the shuttle mission, it will be improved. A more powerful and sophisticated camera and other equipment will be installed allowing astronomers to look even farther back into the formation of the galaxy.

Extending Hubble’s life, so that our understanding and appreciation of space is expanded even farther, is a worthwhile mission.