No Robots for Hubble?

The National Academy of Science is recommending a Shuttle servicing mission to Hubble over the proposed robotic mission:

In a final report released today, ?Assessment of Options for Extending the Life of the Hubble Space Telescope?, the committee concluded that a shuttle mission is the ?best option? for extending the life of Hubble and preparing the telescope for eventual robotic de-orbit…

?The committee recommends that NASA pursue a shuttle servicing mission to HST that would accomplish the above stated goal. Strong consideration should be given to flying this mission as early as possible after return to flight,? the report states…

“We fully recognize that the International Space Station is a very high priority after return to flight,” said committee member Richard Truly, a retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral and director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. “After seven or eight flights, the technical configuration of the space station will be at a point that we concluded you could insert a Hubble flight.”

The final report also rebutted O?Keefe?s objections to shuttle servicing as too risky, saying ?the difference between the risk faced by the crew of a single shuttle mission to the ISS — already accepted by NASA and the nation –and the risk faced by the crew of a shuttle mission to HST, is very small. Given the intrinsic value of a serviced Hubble, and the high likelihood of success for a shuttle servicing mission, the committee judges that such a mission is worth the risk.?…

In the panel?s final analysis, a robotic mission is seen as just too risky given the state of technology and the time available to design, build and test the robotic craft…

Estimates for the mission ran as high as $2.4 billion, although NASA officials have said they think the job could be done for closer to $1.5 billion.

?The very aggressive schedule, the complexity of the mission design, the current low level of technology maturity, and the inability of a robotics mission to respond to unforeseen failures that may well occur on Hubble between now and the mission make it highly unlikely that the science life of HST will be extended through robotic servicing.?

As I said before, developing robotic service capability would be a plus due to its commercial potential. However, it appears that it just isn’t going to happen in the time available or with the resources NASA is willing to spend on the project.

(On the other hand, just because NASA doesn’t seem likely to be able to do it, doesn’t mean someone else, already well along by the looks of things, couldn’t do it instead.)