Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to bring it home

re: bring it home
TB — (archived)

There are two factors in returning the Hubble. The most important one is that it's in a completely different orbit from the Space Station, so any mission to bring it back would have to be one dedicated solely for that purpose. It's not like the Shuttle can go up on some other mission and then get the Hubble on the way back. That's a LOT of money, never mind risk.

Second, I think the landing specs for the Shuttle aren't high enough for hauling something that size any more.

If I were running the show, I'd whomp up some propulsion package for the Hubble that could be carried up on the last repair mission. Kick it into a higher orbit, or keep it stable for enough years until someone else can think of something. The Shuttle would certainly have enough payload margin on a repair mission to carry that kind of a device, but NASA would probably want a billion dollars to build the propulsion package.

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