Could astronauts fix Hubble after all?

One day after NASA’s chief announced plans to look for robots to fix the aging Hubble Space Telescope, scientists on Wednesday heard about a proposal to use shuttle astronauts to do essentially the same job.

NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe Tuesday announced a formal request for proposals for a spacewalking robot to repair Hubble and install some updated scientific instruments. O’Keefe in January had ruled out sending astronauts in a shuttle mission to the orbiting telescope, deeming it too risky.

But Wayne Hale, deputy manager of the shuttle program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, told a National Academy of Sciences panel investigating ways to repair the Hubble that it might be possible to use the shuttle for a mission to extend the Hubble’s life. The telescope’s stabilizing gyroscopes are expected to fail and its batteries to fade, probably in 2007.

Two shuttles would be readied
The plan was conceived before O’Keefe ruled out future shuttle missions to fix Hubble, but is being considered by the science panel which NASA had asked to look at the issue. It would depend on getting the now-grounded fleet back in flight with new safety measures in place, following the Columbia tragedy that killed seven astronauts on Feb. 1, 2003.

Hale said any Hubble repair mission by the shuttle must, as recommended by investigators who probed the Columbia accident, include time to examine the shuttle for damage and a plan to rescue the shuttle astronauts if the damage proved critical.

This would involve having a second shuttle on the launch pad while the repair mission proceeded.

If the first shuttle were critically damaged, the second shuttle would be sent — with a four-person crew — to rescue the seven astronauts on the Hubble mission.

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All 11 crew members would fly home aboard the rescue shuttle, Hale said. The Hubble repairs would be scrapped.

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Four spacewalkers needed
A new Hubble mission would be the fifth maintenance trip by astronauts to the 14-year-old orbiting observatory. It would involve five full days of two-person spacewalks. The crew would have to include four astronauts qualified for the work, along with two others skilled in manipulating the shuttle’s robotic arm, Hale said.

The Hubble telescope’s early history was clouded by blurred vision caused by a flawed main mirror, which was fixed by shuttle astronauts. Since then, it has probed the infant universe, distant galaxies and cosmic phenomena including black holes and dark matter.

O’Keefe’s decision to forgo any future astronaut repair missions sparked outrage from the astronomical community and the public.