Give The Hubble To The World
In the days following The Inauguration, and feeling a mandate, it is announced that the Hubble Space Telescope will be destroyed. There is talk that this is typical hype, surrounding a funding squabble. Others in the scientific community point out the cost and other projects on the horizon which have similar capability, which could also be scrapped, on a whim, once the Hubble is destroyed. Apparently there is a lot of expensive equipment sitting here on Earth that needs to be shuttled up to the Hubble, items that have already been purchased at considerable expense.
In my lifetime, when I consider all the efforts of NASA, and the efforts of Scientists to share their visions with the largely disinterested, I have never seen a more luminous achievement, than The Hubble Space Telescope.
Fraught with outrageous errors at the outset, myopia, and all, it has brought more fantastic insight to the workings of the cosmos, than an aircraft carrier full of Astronomy texts, ever could have. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the pictures from the Hubble have delivered to us billions of insights into the persistent mystery of what lies beyond the atmospheric skin of this lonely, little, world.
Few children have not seen the towering Pillars Of Creation, in the Crab Nebula, or wondered at the various types of glowing structures through out our Universe, brought so clearly into our view, by the Hubble. The birth of Stars, the collision of Galaxies enormous beyond proper comprehension, can be viewed by each of us, high or low. I wonder over these haunting images, captured in time, that tell of the enormity of this timeline, and the spectacle of creation strung out like impossible radiant jewels through the black vastness of eternity as we know it.
This amazing instrument is now treated like an expensive car, that rather than being properly kept up, will be destroyed, because the owner caught his wife having sex in the back seat with the butler.
I say that this expensive piece of property that belongs to the People Of The United States, has a unique value to the People Of The Planet Earth. We should realize that it is time, to let go of our sole proprietorship, and release the care of the Hubble to a larger body of interests. I say let the Hubble be shared with the ESA, and Astronomers from around the world. Let the funding for upkeep, come from a consortium, created to keep the world's view of the Cosmos open, and available, and out of the reach of military funding considerations.
The amount of money needed to rescue the Hubble, is the cost of one B-1 Bomber. We have more than one hundred thousand troops on the ground in Iraq, with their lives on the line, on a daily basis. Astronauts, signed up, knowing there would be risks, let them work, to repair this miracle. Let us share the cost, and benefits of the Hubble Space Station. Rather than keeping space, a war zone; let us make sure space is a zone of unparalleled cooperation, between all nations.
The idea of scrapping the Hubble, is the ultimate in "throw away society" mentality. It also represents a cavalier trivialization of the interests of Scientists, Educators, Children, and The People Of the World, that have delighted in the imagery from The Hubble Space Telescope, for so long.
