AGEING and increasingly decrepit it may be, but the Hubble Space Telescope has still managed to inspire a race by devoted fans to save it from oblivion.
NASA announced two weeks ago that it will not replace the telescope鈥檚 ageing gyroscopes and batteries, nor add two new instruments next year as it had planned. New safety rules in the wake of the Columbia disaster require inspection of the shuttle鈥檚 exterior in space, which can currently be undertaken at the International Space Station, but not at Hubble. Without an overhaul, Hubble is expected to fail around 2007, so NASA plans to dump it in the Pacific.
But Hubble鈥檚 supporters have other ideas. Stephen Beckwith, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, is coordinating a growing campaign to save the trusty telescope. Ideas so far include persuading Russia to send up its own astronauts to service Hubble, finding a way to fix the telescope with a robotic mission, and even sending a 鈥渟pace tug鈥� to push Hubble to the ISS for repairs.
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Beckwith now plans to set up a website to take more suggestions 鈥� and perhaps donations 鈥� from the public. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in the mode of pursuing every wacky concept out there,鈥� he says. In the meantime, anyone who wants to do their bit can sign an online petition at .