by Chris Peterson » Wed Oct 13, 2010 3:19 pm
rstevenson wrote:I think I recall reading that small maneuvering units can be attached to satellites, perhaps robotically, to give them the thrusters they need to either park them in a safe out-of-the-way orbit, or to deorbit them under control. It seems to me that such a thruster pack could be used to park the Hubble somewhere where it won't bother anyone for the next decade or two. It could simply be left there unused and unattended, until such time as we are in space in greater numbers and with more ways to get around and do useful things. Then it could be picked up and repurposed in a variety of different ways. As Chris says, it's just an instrument. But old instruments don't usually get tossed out; they get passed on for others to use.
Lots of instruments get tossed when their cost of operation exceeds the value of data they produce.
In fact, there has been some discussion about trying to put the HST in a higher orbit. But doing that requires more than a maneuvering rocket. It requires a substantial rocket, with a substantial amount of fuel, and a lot of engineering and design. In short, it's very expensive. Most scientists would rather have another year or two added to an existing mission that is producing valuable data, than they would having the HST boosted to a "museum" orbit. This is just the reality of working within very limited resources.
[quote="rstevenson"]I think I recall reading that small maneuvering units can be attached to satellites, perhaps robotically, to give them the thrusters they need to either park them in a safe out-of-the-way orbit, or to deorbit them under control. It seems to me that such a thruster pack could be used to park the Hubble somewhere where it won't bother anyone for the next decade or two. It could simply be left there unused and unattended, until such time as we are in space in greater numbers and with more ways to get around and do useful things. Then it could be picked up and repurposed in a variety of different ways. As Chris says, it's just an instrument. But old instruments don't usually get tossed out; they get passed on for others to use.[/quote]
Lots of instruments get tossed when their cost of operation exceeds the value of data they produce.
In fact, there has been some discussion about trying to put the HST in a higher orbit. But doing that requires more than a maneuvering rocket. It requires a substantial rocket, with a substantial amount of fuel, and a lot of engineering and design. In short, it's very expensive. Most scientists would rather have another year or two added to an existing mission that is producing valuable data, than they would having the HST boosted to a "museum" orbit. This is just the reality of working within very limited resources.