Astronauts, not robots, should fix the Hubble Space Telescope, according to the US National Research Council. But NASA has been pursuing a robotic fix, and it has opposed a manned repair mission on safety grounds, following the Columbia space shuttle disaster in February 2003.
The orbiting telescope is expected to stop functioning by the end of 2007, by which time five of its six stabilising gyroscopes are likely to have failed. If the telescope is to be repaired, astronauts could respond better than robots to unforeseen problems, the NRC argues in a report released on 8 December. Astronauts could also prepare the telescope to dock with a future robotic mission that could steer it safely into the ocean at the end of its life.
The importance of the mission would outweigh possible risks to astronauts, the panel says. 鈥淚f one assumes that going to the International Space Station is worth the risk, we also believe it鈥檚 worth the risk to go to Hubble,鈥� says Roger Tetrault, co-author of the report and a former member of NASA鈥檚 Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
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A human mission could blast off as early as July 2006, once the shuttles return to service and have completed seven flights to the space station. The report says the 鈥渦nprecedented鈥� complexity of developing a robotic mission, which involves creating an automated rendezvous and docking system, as well as validating untested hardware, means it would not launch until February 2010 鈥� too late to save Hubble.
The California-based Aerospace Corporation has independently estimated that a robotic mission could be launched within five years, but that would still be after Hubble鈥檚 probable expiry date.
