Hubble astronauts meet with astronomers

AP on Yahoo ^ | 5/9/07 | Alex Dominguez - ap

[NormsRevenge]

BALTIMORE - The astronauts who will service the Hubble Space Telescope were greeted enthusiastically Wednesday by astronomers who had faced the loss of the orbiting observatory when NASA canceled their mission.

The seven astronauts will be "doing as much as we can cram in" to the September 2008 servicing mission that will keep the Hubble alive, mission commander Scott Altman told a crowded auditorium at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which coordinates the use of the telescope.

"We will do our absolute best to leave the telescope in the most phenomenal condition that it can be when we let go of it with the robotic arm and set it loose on its next voyage," Altman said.

NASA scrubbed a servicing mission following the loss of the shuttle Columbia because of safety concerns. However, the mission was rescheduled in October following an outcry from scientists and the public.

Three of the astronauts on the mission have been on previous Hubble servicing missions, including John Grunsfeld, a self-described "Hubble Hugger."

"Thank all of you for hanging in there," Grunsfeld said, noting he was the recipient of the news when NASA scrubbed the servicing mission.

Grunsfeld said supporters were able to get some common sense back into the process "so we are able to train to make the telescope better even than it is now."

The institute staff were also shown videos of the seven training in a giant pool at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Mission specialist Michael Goodwin, one of the astronauts who will perform the repairs in space, said staying rested and focused during the five consecutive days of spacewalks will be the toughest challenge for him.

Goodwin, Megan McArthur, Andrew Feustel and Mike Good are all rookies. Altman and Grunsfeld will be joined fellow Hubble servicing veteran Michael Massimo.

Without the repair mission, Hubble's batteries and stabilizing gyroscopes could die by the end of the decade, leaving the telescope useless. The $900 million mission should allow the Hubble to keep working until 2013, when the Hubble's successor, the James Webb (news, bio, voting record) telescope, is scheduled to be launched. NASA planned to display of a full-size model of the Webb Thursday on the National Mall in Washington.

The seven also took questions from the children of staffers who came to see the astronauts.

One asked what astronauts do if they have to go to the bathroom while walking in space.

"Just hold it," Feustel joked, adding that the air in the spacesuit is usually so dry he usually drinks all his water and doesn't feel the need during the six hours or so he is in the suit.

When asked what he does when he has an itch, Massimo said astronauts "do a lot of scratching before you get in the suit."

[NormsRevenge]

This photo supplied by NASA-ESA on Wednesday, May 2, 2007, shows a Hubble Space Telescope image of a dense swarm of stars in the central region of the globular cluster NGC 2808. Astronomers were surprised when Hubble spied three generations of cluster stars. For decades, astronomers thought that cluster stars formed at the same time, in the same place, and from the same material, and have co-evolved for billions of years. Scientists now believe that they can go through several periods of intense stellar formation rather than the previously accepted single burst. Globular clusters are among the earliest settlers of our Milky Way Galaxy, born during our galaxy's formation. The stars were born within 200 million years very early in the life of the 12.5-billion-year-old massive cluster. Clusters are compact swarms of typically hundreds of thousands of stars held together by gravity. Of the about 150 known globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 2808 is one of the most massive, containing more than 1 million stars.(AP Photo/NASA-ESA)

[NormsRevenge]

Hubble astronauts, Mike Massimino, Andrew Feustel, Megan McArthur and Mike Good, from left, reacts to a question during a visit to the Space Telescope Science Institute, Wednesday, May 9, 2007, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

[RC51]

Let Hubble die. The cost of a new Hubble but better and designed to be serviced would cost less than 1 manned mission to service the old bucket of bolts.

[dr_lew]

The hell you say. How would they put this wondrous imaginary telescope up there? With the shuttle? No? How then?

I love that “designed to be serviced”. Do you mean that it would be serviced by elves? ... or UFO’s ?

[dr_lew]

Note that ngc 2808 is “a faint naked eye object” according to the Peterson Field Guide. However, at latitude -67, you have to go at least to the equator to get a view of it, and to New Zealand or Australia to see it high in the sky.

[Liberty Valance]

[NormsRevenge]

I’d love to make the trip to view this and other objects down under.

There are some videos at the link

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGXYSM41F_index_1.html#subhead5

[Charles Martel]

Let Hubble die. The cost of a new Hubble but better and designed to be serviced would cost less than 1 manned mission to service the old bucket of bolts.

So, is Hubble's replacement ready to fly? The service pack for Hubbell has been bought and paid for since before the Columbia was lost on re-entry; we should certainly get our money's worth out of that purchase. Yeah, I know shuttle missions are expensive, but NASA *is* going to fly missions anyway. I'm happy to see them risking a mission that takes the shuttle out of the vicinity of the ISS.

[gcruse]

Call me a Hubble-hugger too, then. It’s too valuable an asset to discard.