Hubble's Life Extended
Fortunately, NASA's current administrator, Mike Griffin, has a bit more common sense to him than his predecessor. Maybe it's because he's an aerospace engineer and not an accountant. Anyway, the Hubble Space Telescope will be serviced so that it's lifespan can be extended another 15 years beyond its current demise date of 2008. Hubble was launched in 1990. Servicing the telescope means that its lifespan will be over 30 years. From a fiscal standpoint, that's big. While cost overruns pushed Hubble's expenditure up to $1.75 billion, an astronomical figure if you'll pardon the pun, it's nothing compared to the war in Iraq. We spend that much money in about 10 days. From what I've seen, we've certainly gotten more performance out of Hubble than we have out of Iraq.
The Hubble has provided us with fantastic images of the universe that we're a part of. It confirmed the existence of black holes and helped to decipher quasars. It brought us close-ups of comet Shoemaker-Levy slamming into Jupiter and auroras on Saturn. It has rendered images of distant galaxies, as well as clusters of galaxies, in unprecedented clarity. It has revolutionized astronomy and broadened our understanding of the cosmos.
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I can't provide coverage here for all of the fantastic images taken by Hubble. If you're curious, check out the Hubble's website for more of its discoveries.
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DED
Labels: space_exploration
posted by DED at 5:45 PM
7 Comments:
I'll admit the geek in me enjoys this stuff. But I feel terribly inconsistent carping about government largesse while simultaneously going weeeee, cool pics!
Should go private. Or let voters in each state decide (via referendum?) whether they want a portion of state funding shunted into these programs.
The benefits of the space program are enjoyed by people all over the world. If, as stated in the preamble to the Constitution, the role of government is "to promote the general welfare", among other things, then the US space program has done that. Do I need to go down the list of everyday items that people enjoy thanks to the space program?
Hubble may be pure science with little trickle down impact on Joe Sixpack, but without the advancement of science there can be no advancement of us as people. Thanks to this administration, we're falling behind in science and technology. While they might think that it's a swell idea to offshore all of our manufacturing and service jobs, letting our knowledge workers go dooms us down the road. If we lose our scientific competitiveness, what will we have left?
I would love to see the private sector take over the lead in space research and exploration. But businesses need a reasonable ROI for them to do anything. And right now there's nothing in space that can't be had cheaper right here on Earth.
Right now, the novelty of going into space is the only viable enterprise for private businesses to invest in. Virgin Galactic will make buttloads of money on space tourism. LEO will become as exotic a destination as Tahiti or Fiji. Think of the early airline industry of the 1930's. It was an exclusive province of the wealthy. As the technology improved and larger planes became feasible, the costs came down and flying became accessible to all. As the costs come down, other enterprises will be able to see a reasonable ROI to justify their own forays into space.
As for referendums on funding to let the people have a say, that's what their congressmen are for. Our representatives are supposed to be representing our wishes, though we all know it's really lobbyists. If we start having referendums on "trivial" stuff like budget items, then what's to stop us from having referendums on important stuff like going to war, healtcare, and taxes? In essence you'd be talking about a direct democracy rather than our sweet old republic. And I'd wager that our aristocracy wouldn't stand for that one bit.
Ok. I cry Uncle!
I've been meaning to ask you, you know what happened to Mort?
His site is down is down again, and he hasn't posted comments here, at my joint, or CFN.
No I don't. I'm guessing that he "flaked out" again and decided to yank it, despite all of our protests to the contrary. So, I've pulled the link to his blog. It's too bad because I really liked his posts.
Those pictures from the hubble are nothing short of astonishing. And, to think they were going to let that thing die a premature death. Glad to hear it will be given a new lease on life!
If the gov't wanted to sell Hubble, I'm sure that it could find a buyer. Of that I have no doubt.
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