A newly chartered and prestigious blue ribbon panel is weighing the future of
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
At issue is just how long should the hugely successful orbiting eye remain on duty and at what cost? Those decisions, and a myriad of other matters, need fleshing out as NASA pushes forward on building the next generation spaceborne observatory -- the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The shuttle program is now looking at a date in their manifest no earlier than third quarter of fiscal year 2005 for the next Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. New news about this replanning decision is soon expected from NASA Headquarters, as is word on budget impact.
At present, Hubble operations are to end in 2010. The launch of JWST is planned for late 2011, but that's if all goes well in building, testing, and orbiting the super-powerful observatory.
JWST is the natural successor to the Hubble. But just how and when to terminate the now-orbiting observatory is under review.
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| The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) will look back to an extremely important period in the early history of the universe -- a time when the first stars and galaxies began to form -- and a point in cosmological history
that could be called "the Dark Age".
Credit: NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute
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| The James Webb Space Telescope by Northrop Grumman/Ball Aerospace team. Using technology similar to that of night vision goggles, this NGST will study infrared emissions from the first objects created in the Universe.
Credit: TRW/Ball Aerospace
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| A schematic overview of the Northrop Grumman/Ball JWST design.
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| The Hubble Space Telescope is designed for constant upkeep. Current plans call for the orbiting eye to cease operations in 2010. Experts now are discussing keeping Hubble on-duty beyond that date. Credit: NASA. Click to enlarge.
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Transition plan
Up for discussion is enhancing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) operations through continued servicing by the space shuttle. Shuttle astronaut overhauls of Hubble may be essential to reach the 2010 target date. On the other hand, servicing missions by the shuttle are expensive and inherently dangerous.
To help sort what next for Hubble, NASA's Office of Space Science has created the HST-JWST Transition Plan Review Panel.
The newly appointed 5-member group is chaired by John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Studies, the group has been asked to evaluate the plans to terminate Hubble in 2010, then scope out transition to the JWST.
Joining Bahcall are other first-rate scientists: Barry Barish, California Institute of Technology; Christopher McKee, University of California, Berkeley; Martin Rees, Cambridge University; and Charles Townes of the University of California, Berkeley.
Over the next few months, the panel has been asked to solicit input from the scientific community and other experts in their overall deliberations.
The panel is to wrap up its findings and submit them to NASA Headquarters by October 1.
Hard questions
In the course of its general review, the panel has been requested by NASA to focus on several key questions, such as:
- Does the current plan provide for the best scientific use of unique HST abilities in the context of the overall NASA program?;
- Is there sufficient flexibility in the plan to respond to, for example, unforeseeable failures of HST instruments, for limitations on shuttle servicing missions, and for possible delays in the James Webb Space Telescope program?
"Clearly the hard question for the science community and for NASA and Congress will be, when is it time to pull the plug on one of NASA's most successful observatories," said John Mather, JWST project scientist
and senior astrophysicist in the Infrared Astrophysics Branch at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"The James Webb Space Telescope is complementary, not a
replacement," Mather told SPACE.com .
The Hubble Space Telescope was shuttle-deployed in Earth orbit in April 1990. The orbiting observatory could be brought down to Earth in 2010 for possible display in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Other studies are underway to raise Hubble to a higher orbit -- possibly with the aid of an attached booster -- where it cannot fall back to Earth.
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%20will%20look%20back%20to%20an%20extremely%20important%20period%20in%20the%20early%20history%20of%20the%20universe%20--%20a%20time%20when%20the%20first%20stars%20and%20galaxies%20began%20to%20form%20--%20and%20a%20point%20in%20cosmological%20history%20
that%20could%20be%20called%20%20the%20Dark%20Age%20.%20
Credit:%20NASA/Space%20Telescope%20Science%20Institute)
