Zubrin, O’Keefe, Beckwith to Debate Hubble on CNN Tonight
March 9, 2004
For further information about the Mars Society, visit our website at
www.marssociety.org.Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin, Space Telescope Science
Institute Director Dr. Steve Beckwith, and NASA Administrator Mr. Sean
O’Keefe will discuss the Hubble Space Telescope on CNN tonight. At
issue is Mr. O’Keefe’s controversial decision to desert the
space telescope. Both Dr. Zubrin and Dr. Beckwith oppose Hubble abandonment.The show will air twice, first within the Anderson Cooper newshour
beginning at 7 PM EST, and then again during the Aaron Brown newshour
which starts at 10 PM EST.
Since there doesn’t appear to be any streaming video of this, I’ll have to wait for others who have cable to tell me how it went.
Thats it?
Turns out it wasn’t a debate, just a 5-minute piece on the fate of Hubble. O’Keefe spoke about his decision, indicating that servicing Hubble and meeting the recommendations of the CAIB were mutually exclusive. Zubrin basically stated that the human exploration of space and cowardice were mutually exclusive.
OKeefe says SM4 needs a safe haven. Zubrin says its doesnt, but since OKeefe is Director of NASA I will let Zubrin carry that ball. Thus I now ask – – Why is ISS the only potential safe haven?
Launch a Soyuz from Kouru to loiter close to Hubble. Launch SM4 as soon as possible after the Soyuz arrives at Hubble.
Service Hubble.Use the Soyuz for a close visual fly-by of the orbiter. If no signs of damage, land orbiter and dump Soyuz in Pacific.
If unrepairable damage, transfer crew to Soyuz and dump orbiter in Pacific (or leave on orbit for study then dump in Pacific). If repairable damage send up appropriate repair kit via Progress from Kouru. Repair orbiter. If in doubt, land crew via Soyuz and land orbiter via remote operation.
Either 3 crew in SM4 and Soyuz goes up uncrewed or if automated docking isnt practical, 2 in SM4 and 1 crew flies the Soyuz.
I supppose Hubble might fail before late 2006 or early 2007 which returns us to Zubrins argument.
This space.com piece reports another delay in return to flight.
http://space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_040322.html
What is stunning to me is the fact that Endeavor will not fly until 2006, meaning that Atlantis (Discovery’s back-up) cannot fly until very late 2005 provided Endeavor is flight ready by the first three months of 2006.
Without shuttle derived or another HLLV, how will we finish ISS, ever? 2010 for ISS completion now seems like a fairy tale, or am I missing something?
A few months ago, gadfly Jeff Bell quickly said that the Bush January speech was a harbinger of the end of US manned spaceflight.
I hope he is just ranting incoherently as Mr. Wingo and others assert but IF we spend 3 or 4 years working on orbiter and then decide its “fundamentally irresponsible” to fly it again and CEV is still at concept stage, well, where are we?
O’Keefe’s “fundamentally irresponsible” cuts pretty deep, IMHO. Too deep, perhaps? Which is Zubrin’s real point about Hubble, right?
“I hope he is just ranting incoherently as Mr. Wingo and others assert but IF we spend 3 or 4 years working on orbiter and then decide its “fundamentally irresponsible” to fly it again and CEV is still at concept stage, well, where are we?”
We’ll have three spiffy, top-condition Orbiters ready for our space museums…
Hardly a worthwhile silver lining, though, since it would mean we’d have spent several billion dollars refurbishing them and keeping their associated facilities and “standing army” in place pending a return to flight that never came, instead of spending that money on…just about anything else on the Moon-Mars menu.
I’ve read rumors to the effect that Shuttle will be cancelled outright sometime in early 2005 (i.e., comfortably after the election), with the escalating problems with the Orbiters getting the blame. It’s an interesting possibility to speculate on — what would be the warning signs that such a thing is in the offing, what would it mean for the Moon-Mars plan, what would it mean for the entrepreneurs, etc.?