Comments on: Hubble celebrates 29 years in orbit

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 00:25:17 +0000

In reply to Orion314. Orion314: "Just passing along a story" that you haven't sourced and you have no idea is true is the equivalent of fake news. It is a bad habit that too many people do nowadays, far too nonchalantly. It can do real harm, not only to those you might be maligning but to yourself. As the old saying goes, better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

By: Orion314

Orion314 — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 23:58:32 +0000

Just passing along a story I recall from that time.As I pointed out,I was refering to updated S/W image processing, not new H/W.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 23:24:26 +0000

In reply to Orion314.

Orion314: You are exhibiting a lack of knowledge about COSTAR, Hubble, and its repair. COSTAR was needed to repair at least one instrument on Hubble. When they installed it in 1993, along with a new camera, Wide Field Camera 2, it made useful all of Hubble’s instruments.

In later years the instrument that COSTAR fixed was replaced with a new instrument with its own corrective optics, then making COSTAR unneeded. They then used COSTAR’s slot to put in another new instrument, maximizing Hubble’s capabilities.

Also, corrective optics before the repair never fixed anything. It produced better images, but with many artifacts that caused many research problems. The repair was essential.

I wish people would do a little research before talking. It would make whatever you say more creditable.

By: geoffc

geoffc — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 23:20:21 +0000

Even money says once Starship is flying regularly, Musk personally pays for a mission to retrieve Hubble for the Smithsonian.

By: Orion314

Orion314 — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 23:05:03 +0000

The story has it , the corrective optics (COSTAR) installed by the Astronauts wasn’t actually needed. They figured out how to correct HST’s mirror shape error with updated s/w processing before the “rescue mission’ took place. so the story goes….

By: Col Beausabre

Col Beausabre — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 20:30:28 +0000

Pictures like this show why it is tragic that we are going to lose Hubble and why it’s a sin that we don’t have a replacement even on the drawing boards (metaphorically, I realize it’s all CAD now, but that’s two years of mechanical drawing, a year of engineering graphics and a student job as a draftsman speaking)

By: eddie willers

eddie willers — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 18:31:56 +0000

I was SOOO mad when they they finally figured out why the first pictures were fuzzy.

Story Musgrave and crew restored my faith….for a few more years.