Aging telescope prompts new JHU proposal

The aging Hubble Space Telescope faces an uncertain future and scientists and politicians are now grappling with what to do about it.

Circling 375 miles above the earth's surface, Hubble travels around the planet every 95 minutes and provides astronomers with extraordinary amounts of data that allow an understanding of the universe at a whole new level.

However, to keep the Hubble operating with the newest technologies would cost as much as $2 billion, an amount that does not fit into President Bush's proposed budget for the coming year.

While some scientists are focusing on ways to keep the current Hubble operating at a lower cost, scientists here at The Johns Hopkins University propose launching an entirely new telescope.

They have dubbed their proposed telescope the Hubble Origins Probe and say that it will be able to carry out the same tasks as the current Hubble Space Telescope at a much lower cost.

The plans for the Hubble Space Telescope were originally set in place in the 1970s, after two decades of leaps and bounds in space technology, including landing on the moon and the Soviet launching of Sputnik. However, multiple setbacks delayed the development and then launching of Hubble until April 1990.

Hubble was designed to last until the end of this decade, with five planned servicing missions to keep its technology up to date and its equipment functioning.

The first four of these manned trips have already happened. The last, however, was cancelled after seven astronauts died on the Columbia Shuttle in 2003.

NASA administrators ruled that after the Columbia tragedy, it would be putting astronaut's lives at risk to send a manned mission to Hubble.

They proposed the alternative idea, however, of an entirely robotic mission to install new equipment on the Hubble.

Since then, a group of scientists at the National Academy of Sciences have dubbed the idea of a robotic mission unlikely. Furthermore, President Bush's budget for the coming year makes it imperative to find a cheaper option.

On Feb. 2, Dr. Colin Norman, a member of the Hopkins physics department and the of the Space Telescope Science Institute, spoke in front of the House of Representatives Committee on Science in favor of funding the Hubble Origins Probe.

"There have been many striking moments during the Hubble mission," he testified. "Indeed, Hubble discoveries have rewritten the text books from which our children learn."

The Hubble Origins Probe is a 2.4-meter free flying telescope, making it smaller and lighter than the Hubble Space Telescope, and therefore making the launch cheaper and easier. It could be launched in 2010 and the entire cost, including the launch, would top out at $1 billion.

Although this cost seems hefty, Norman explained that in the end, it is worth it.

"The groundbreaking science, the cutting-edge technology generated in the development of new instrumentation, the ability of Hubble science to engage the interest of the public, and its impact on the imagination of students, make it worthwhile to invest this sum of public funds to complete the last chapter of the Hubble's remarkable legacy," Norman said.

Indeed, without the Hubble, much forward looking physics and astronomy research would perhaps come to a stand-still. However, it is precisely because of this, that scientists are taking action to make sure something is done.

Introducing the Hubble debate to the Science Committee, Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert spoke poignant words about the future of the Hubble, no matter what happens to it.

"While the Hubble's amazing journey will some day eventually come to an end, it will not be the end of the story, just as Galileo's looking glass wasn't the last telescope. The next chapter will feature bigger, better, and more capable observatories which will provide even more amazing discoveries," Calvert said.