News Hubble telescope hit by mechanical failure

[BV031]

So... what happens to astronomy if we lose it? I know there's a variety of capable telescopes up there now, but nothing coming close to Hubbles optical abilities. What would astronomy look like without it?

Tis' a shame that we spend hundreds of billions (annually!) on war and killing, yet couldn't afford to develop a replacement for Hubble. Or repair it. JWST is a joke, and can't even get off the ground. No one wants to take the risk and have their name attached to what could possibly the biggest failure of all time.

I keep hearing that Hubble has a docking ring attached to it. Well, couldn't we take a couple billion and develop and launch a gyro-assist package? Instead of a retro-rocket to de-orbit the 'scope, which is the next step. Something like a small box of gyros that would attach to the ring and take over the functionality of the failed units. Much like how you use a Mophie or auxiliary battery pack on your phone when the battery starts losing capacity.

It could be either automated or manual docking. Or perhaps be done by a crew. All that need be done is develop the box - which should be no harder than any other medium-sized satellite - and attach it with no more than 5 or so screw clamps.

Hubble telescope allows for you to stare into the great wide yonder.

 

[BV031]

The Hubble Telescope.

And now another Great Observatory far beyond it's prime years have joined in: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/chandra-enters-safe-mode-investigation-underway

Is any new x-ray space telescope planned? AFAIR, XMM-Newton will end its mission this year, unless it gets a sudden extension. Its already the longest space mission for ESA, with over 6800 days.

---------- Post added at 21:38 ---------- Previous post was at 20:20 ----------

Looks like the gyroscope is fine except its measurements: It measures bigger rates than it should. Does somebody know if it is using magnetic pickups like the Shuttle RGAs did?

The HST is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

 

[Notebook]

This new image of the Triangulum Galaxy – also known as Messier 33 or NGC 598 – has a staggering 665 million pixels and showcases the central region of the galaxy and its inner spiral arms. To stitch together this gigantic mosaic, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys needed to create 54 separate images.

http://sci.esa.int/hubble/61036-hubble-takes-gigantic-image-of-the-triangulum-galaxy-heic1901/

 

[boogabooga]

Could someone please change the thread title?

Everytime I see it pop up in the recent threads, I panic a little...

 

[Notebook]

09 January 2019
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the brightest quasar ever seen in the early Universe. After 20 years of searching, astronomers have identified the ancient quasar with the help of strong gravitational lensing. This unique object provides an insight into the birth of galaxies when the Universe was less than a billion years old.

http://sci.esa.int/hubble/61052-hubble-sees-the-brightest-quasar-in-the-early-universe-heic1902/

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Could someone please change the thread title?

Everytime I see it pop up in the recent threads, I panic a little...

Well, it IS accurate right now... WFC3 is down due to hardware failure at the moment. NASA is working to switch over to backup equipment.

 

[Notebook]

Title The accidentally discovered galaxy Bedin I
Released 31/01/2019 4:00 pm
Copyright ESA/Hubble, NASA, Bedin et al.; CC BY 4.0

http://sci.esa.int/hubble/61075-hub...-galaxy-in-the-cosmic-neighbourhood-heic1903/

 

[Slothead]

Does anyone here know/surmise/guess/wish that the Crew Dragon or CST-100 Starliner could take a repair crew, tools and parts to service HST?
Or perform other similar functions that were formerly done by Space Shuttle?

The answer stems from the fact that the HST required a specific mount that resided in the orbiter payload bay to stabilize the telescope while being worked on. Thus my answer is a resounding NO, since the Dragon does not provide such a large mounting surface for attaching HST. While a separate vehicle could be launched to provide such a platform, your question was limited to the Dragon.

 

[Donamy]

The answer stems from the fact that the HST required a specific mount that resided in the orbiter payload bay to stabilize the telescope while being worked on. Thus my answer is a resounding NO, since the Dragon does not provide such a large mounting surface for attaching HST. While a separate vehicle could be launched to provide such a platform, your question was limited to the Dragon.

Like this ?

 

[Star Voyager]

Really surprised no one has posted this study yet.

https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/handle/2346/64514

 

[Notebook]

20 February 2019
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, along with older data from the Voyager 2 probe, have revealed more about the origin of Neptune's smallest moon. The moon, which was discovered in 2013 and has now received the official name Hippocamp, is believed to be a fragment of its larger neighbour Proteus.

http://sci.esa.int/hubble/61142-hub...f-neptune-s-smallest-moon-hippocamp-heic1904/

 

[Urwumpe]

Really surprised no one has posted this study yet.

https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/handle/2346/64514

Looks a lot less realizable than what Donamy does. Maybe the author of the study should know. :lol:

 

[Notebook]

28 March 2019
Thanks to an impressive collaboration bringing together data from ground-based telescopes, all-sky surveys and space-based facilities – including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope – a rare self-destructing asteroid called 6478 Gault has been observed.

http://sci.esa.int/hubble/61244-hubble-captures-rare-active-asteroid-heic1906/

 

[Notebook]

25 April 2019
Hubble's measurements of today's expansion rate do not match the rate that was expected based on how the Universe appeared shortly after the Big Bang over 13 billion years ago. Using new data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have significantly lowered the possibility that this discrepancy is a fluke.

http://sci.esa.int/hubble/61318-lat...onstant-calculations-is-not-a-fluke-heic1908/

 

[barrygolden]

thanks for all the updates about the HST. Still making ideal altering discoveries after all these years. No sure when or if JWST will ever fly so we need to keep updating HST for as long as it will perform. Don hats off to you for your addon about this. I can say that the brains at Space X looked into how to do this and a manager from Hawthorne flew here to look at your addon. Mike did share with me some images and drawings of their plan and it was a one launch with the airlock in the truck and an arm to walk out of there as well . He did say that with all that in the truck not much room for repair parts

 

[Donamy]

Did you tell them, I recommend two launches ?

:rofl:

 

[Notebook]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-48068242/when-the-biggest-numbers-don-t-add-up

Video
When the biggest numbers don't add up
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have made their most precise measure yet for the expansion rate of the Universe.
It comes out at 74.03km/second per megaparsec (a megaparsec is 3.26 million light-years). Or put another way - the expansion increases by 74.03km/s for every 3.26 million light-years we look further out into space.
The problem is that's 9% faster than expected. The BBC Today programme's Justin Webb asked Nobel laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University, US, why the discrepancy mattered.
2h ago

 

[Donamy]

How could I be expanding ? I just lost 50lbs.

 

[Urwumpe]

How could I be expanding ? I just lost 50lbs.

Just imagine your abdominal girth now, without this expansion.


I keep on shrinking which suggests, that my measuring tape simply expands too fast.

 

[mahdavi3d]