Newsgroup: it.scienza.astronomia
Titolo: Cancellate le future "missioni di servizio" sull'Hubble (lungo)

Le "servicing mission" 4 e 5 previste per riparare, aggiornare e riportare a
terra il Telescopio Spaziale Hubble sono state definitivamente cancellate.
Ora il Telescopio rimarrà in orbita con soli 4 giroscopi funzionanti su 6 e
senza l'installazione degli strumenti di terza generazione COS (Cosmic
Origin Spectrograph) e WFC3 (Wide Field Camera 3) praticamente già "pronti
per l'uso".
Ora c'è il 50% di possibilità che il telescopio resti operativo fino al 2007
e il JWST non "volerà" prima del 2011...
Veramente una bruttissima notizia, spero per lo meno che sfutteranno in
qualche modo i due strumenti già realizzati.
Di seguito l'intero articolo preso da 
www.spaceflightnow.com
Un saluto a tutti,
FabioZak
http://astrogallery.altervista.org/
      NASA cancels final Hubble telescope servicing mission
      BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
      STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
      Posted: January 16, 2004 at 5:15 p.m. EST; Updated at 7 p.m. with news
conference details
      A final planned shuttle mission to service and upgrade the Hubble
Space Telescope, one of the most scientifically productive spacecraft ever
launched, has been cancelled, primarily because of post-Columbia safety
concerns and a new directive to retire the shuttle by 2010, NASA officials
said today.
            Credit: NASA
      "This is sort of a sad day that we have to announce this," said NASA
Chief Scientist John Grunsfeld, an astronaut who helped upgrade Hubble in
2002. "But I have to tell you, as somebody very close to the project, I can
tell you they made the right decision. It's one that's in the best interest
of NASA."
      The decision means an advanced camera and light-splitting
spectrograph - both already built - will not be installed. It also leaves
Hubble's continued operation at the mercy of its aging gyroscopes, batteries
and other equipment.
      Based on the past performance of the gyros and other gear, engineers
believe the observatory has a 50-50 chance of remaining in operation until
mid 2007, three years shy of when NASA had earlier planned to retire the
observatory.
      Hubble's replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, will not be
launched until around 2011 at the earliest. Foregoing the final servicing
mission means the gap between Hubble and Webb will stretch years longer than
scientists had hoped.
      "We're going to try to get as much life as we can out of the Hubble
Space Telecope," Grunsfeld said. "We have a commitment from the office of
space science that we will continue to support the research and analysis
work even beyond (Hubble's demise)."
      NASA Administrator O'Keefe told engineers and scientists at NASA's
Goddard Spaceflight Center that his decision was based on a variety of
factors, including a recommendation by the Columbia Accident Investigation
Board that would require an autonomous tile repair capability for flights
not bound for the international space station.
      Hubble Servicing Mission 4, or SM-4, was the final flight on NASA's
launch manifest that wasn't bound for the space station, where the crew of a
crippled shuttle could attempt repairs or await rescue. The CAIB
recommendation would have required NASA to develop stand-alone repair
techniques for a single flight.
      Grunsfeld said the cost of that effort, coupled with the Bush
administration's recent directive to complete space station assembly and
retire the shuttle fleet by 2010, left little choice.
      "The president laid out for us a plan for space exploration,"
Grunsfeld said. "As part of that, he directed us to use this precious
resource, the space shuttle, with a priority of completing the international
space station and then retiring the shuttle.
      "And so as part of that, when you look at what it would take to
support this one single-use unique mission ... in light of retiring the
shuttle, kind of pushed the decision over the edge and allowed the
administrator to make that decision. As a result, this decision is reflected
in the president's budget, which will come out on Feb. 2."
      Hubble supporters were devastated.
      "People here are brushing off their resumes," said one official at the
Space Telescope Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
"Hubble has been such a crown jewel for NASA, I would have hoped it would
have tilted the balance the other way. ... It's been a sad day. It was like
walking around a funeral home."
      Before the Columbia disaster, NASA had planned to launch a final
servicing mission to install the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and a new,
third-generation Wide Field Camera. Spacewalking astronauts also planned to
replace stabilizing gyroscopes, aging batteries and other equipment in a bid
to keep Hubble healthy until 2010 or so.
      Only four of the telescope's six gyroscopes are operational and at
least three are needed to continue scientific operations. Engineers hope to
develop software that will allow the observatory to function with two gyros,
but that work is not yet complete.
      How long Hubble might continue to operate without another servicing
mission is anybody's guess.
      "The answer to how long it can last is completely probabilistic," said
a project scientist who asked not to be named. "Who knows what will fail
first? The two things we have always been most concerned with are the gyros
and the batteries, both of which SM-4 would have addressed."
      Based on the past performance of the gyroscopes, "it's our guess we
have two years to go with 50 percent probability before we're down to two
gyros," he said. "But it could be tomorrow and it could be eight years (from
now).
      "We need three gyros to do business as usual. We believe we can
develop software to operate with two gyros and do 70 percent of the science
the community would like to do. And indeed, headquarters had committed
itself to asking Goddard and the institute to develop two-gyro mode several
months ago. So clearly, we will do that."
      That effort probably would keep Hubble operational into the mid 2007
time frame, but there are no guarantees. Batteries are another potential
issue.
      "The batteries are the original batteries, they are way past their
experience baseline now," the astronomer said. "They are showing teeny
little idiosyncratic signs of aging that no one really knows how to
interpret. That's another wild card. And then, of course, you can name other
things that could interrupt operations."
      Up in the air is the fate of the Space Telescope Science Institute and
the costly instruments already built for SM-4.
      "The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field 3 are almost
complete and they are both fantastic instruments. We're really going to
scratch our heads and find a good way to get the science out of those,"
Grunsfeld said.
      "The various options that we are looking at, nothing definitive, but
one possibility is that we find a way to incorporate the opportunity for
those instruments to fly in ... our medium-class Explorer missions," he
said.
      "For instance the Origins Spectrograph could be combined with a
relatively small mirror -- a one- or a one-and-a-half-meter mirror -- and
still do the high-priority science."

Eccola la'. E ora sotto a chi tocca: per me e' solo questione di 
settimane prima che venga cancellata la sonda verso Plutone e magari 
anche qualcuna delle future Discovery. E come per l'Apollo il primo a 
risentirne e' il programma di scienze spaziali.
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 risentirne e' il programma di scienze spaziali.
Penso che l'hubble abbia contribuito più di qualsiasi altro satellite,
sonda, veicolo spaziale pilotato alla nostra conoscienza sul cosmo e loro lo
ringraziano così.... Che schifo. Naturlamente ai tg non parleranno della
prematura morte dello strumento che ci ha regalato così tante meravigliose
immagini.


Nnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo  :-(

 qualche modo i due strumenti già realizzati.
dite a ASI e ALS di portarli su con le trombette loro.....
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