Is the Hubble Telescope in Need of Another Repair?

[turbo]

No, not the foam. How much tile.

According to NOVA the chunk of that lightweight insulating foam was about the size of a briefcase and it punched a hole about the size of a dinner-plate in the carbon-tile leading edge of the wing.

 

[mgb_phys]

No, not the foam. How much tile.

I don't think there was much left of columbia to measure but the tests they did firing foam at a model gave a hole about 40x40cm

 

[Cyrus]

I don't think there was much left of columbia to measure but the tests they did firing foam at a model gave a hole about 40x40cm

Thats a huge 1ft x 1ft hole compared to these scuffs.

 

[mgb_phys]

The ESA Herschel and Planck missions launched successfully, separated form the booster and are on their way to L2.
Not as dramatic as a shuttle launch but hopefully some good science.

http://www.esa.int/images/_SCO6143_large,0.jpg

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I keep hearing that this repair mission is particularly dangerous because there is a large amount of debris in that orbit. If so, then why is the Hubble there?

 

[mgb_phys]

LEO is a popular neighbourhood, Hubble is also limited to being in an orbit that the shuttle can reach which isn't ideal for a bunch of other reasons.
It's not so much specifically Hubble but there are lots of things at that sort of orbit, the collision a couple of months ago didn't help

 

[signerror]

Due to the crew sleeping an hour later, the Hubble mission's timeline also will shift one hour to the right.

http://twitter.com/nasa

 

[signerror]

Hubble EVA videos - in high resolution!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPVIbHFP_s4

 

[Ivan Seeking]

LEO is a popular neighbourhood, Hubble is also limited to being in an orbit that the shuttle can reach which isn't ideal for a bunch of other reasons.
It's not so much specifically Hubble but there are lots of things at that sort of orbit, the collision a couple of months ago didn't help

Soooooo, I guess that normally the shuttle is at lower and safer altitudes, and the Hubble required a higher altitude, so a compromise was required that left Hubble in a somewhat undesirable orbit wrt the risk of a collision?

 

[mgb_phys]

Well the ideal place to put Hubble is something like L2 but that's 1.5M km away so a bit tricky. Other than that - the higher the better, the lower you are the more drag the more the Earth gets in the way and the low inclination orbit from the cape means it hits the SAA.
The height is a bit of a compromise - of the first set of shuttles only a couple could reach it (IIRC) which caused some more delays

Collision wise there's nothing particularly bad about Hubble's orbit that 10km up or down would really help.

 

[signerror]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iTXU_Tjsa2sPYDLX--U8e4eS1TtQ

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AFP) — NASA on Saturday further delayed the return to Earth of the space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-man crew because of poor weather.

Attempts to land the shuttle, following a successful mission to repair the Hubble telescope, had to be completely abandoned on Friday because of inclement conditions at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA said it had decided not to use the first window of opportunity on Saturday, scheduled for 9:16 am (1316 GMT), for the same reason.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5gDr6KtQc4g7DP2I9IVpZbalGCsbg?size=l

The next two landing opportunities are at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 10:45 a.m. or Kennedy again at 10:54 a.m.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/landing_blog.html

For a 10:45aET landing at Edwardds, the deorbit burn would occur at 9:29a. Mission Control continues to monitor weather at Kennedy though.

http://twitter.com/nasa

 

[signerror]

"Go" for Edwards Deorbit Burn
Mission control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston just gave the astronauts aboard Atlantis a "go" for the deorbit burn on orbit 197, putting them on course for a 11:39 a.m. touchdown in California. This firing of the two orbital maneuvering system engines will slow the shuttle enough to begin the glide back to Earth.

Atlantis Looks Toward California Landing
Mission control has decided a Florida landing today is a "no go" due to weather around the landing site but they will continue to target the landing at Edwards on the 197th orbit, putting touchdown in California at 11:39 a.m. Deorbit burn would come at 10:24 a.m.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/landing_blog.html

 

[russ_watters]

Oh, sweet - I'm going to be in Orlando next week. Maybe I'll get to see it fly back!

 

[turbo]

Burn is complete and the shuttle is maneuvering to nose-first position for atmospheric entry.

 

[turbo]

about 10 minutes to go.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

 

[OAQfirst]

Welcome home!

 

[turbo]

Safely down - perfect landing.

 

[John37]

I thought we already fixed hubble? What's wrong with it?

is he having a laugh?