In the mid-2030s, the Hubble Space Telescope will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere—unless NASA agrees to a daring plan to allow a billionaire to save it.
The world’s premier visible light space observatory, originally launched in 1990 from the payload bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery and not visited by a maintenance crew since 2009, has been struggling lately.
After announcing on May 31 that it had suspended science operations a week prior after a technical glitch, NASA announced Tuesday that it now expects the Hubble Space Telescope to continue science operations on one single gyroscope, a component that keeps it correctly oriented. Such is the wish to keep Hubble operating in some form for as long as possible that its other two gyroscopes are now being kept in reserve. It should be using all of them.
Technical Glitches
Hubble’s current predicament follows long-term problems with its gyroscopes, which it also experienced in April and November. Of six gyroscopes replaced back in 2009, only three remain active. Hubble needs new gyroscopes. It also needs a technology makeover. In July 2021, it spent a month out of action because its payload computer temporarily failed.
Cue an uptick in interest in “Polaris Dawn”—an ambitious plan for astronauts to refurbish and boost Hubble from a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and prevent its inevitable demise in 2034.
The End Of Hubble
If nothing is done to replace its gyroscopes, Hubble’s shelf-life is limited. Regardless, it will burn up in a decade. That’s because of something called orbital decay. Anything that orbits Earth does so in ever-decreasing circles, inevitably falling back to Earth at some point in the future.
Hubble is in a low-Earth orbit, about 326 miles (525 km) above Earth’s surface. That’s farther out than the International Space Station, which has to boost itself every month to a higher orbit to avoid burning up in the atmosphere. Hubble’s orbit is decaying several miles each year, and if it degrades badly, it will unavoidably burn up, ultimately being guided to break up over the Pacific Ocean to fall into the spacecraft cemetery. Hubble needs a boost.
Polaris Dawn
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 Payments—who went to space as commander of the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission in September 2021—has suggested a plan to save Hubble. With SpaceX, Isaacman is preparing for a trio of missions called Polaris Dawn, the first of which will send astronauts in a Dragon capsule 870 miles above Earth and the third of which will see the first astronauts fly on SpaceX’s Starship. The second mission, says Isaacamn, could service Hubble. It wouldn’t cost NASA anything.
It was a response to NASA issuing a request in 2022 for commercial space companies to suggest ways Hubble’s shelf life could be extended, but the space agency seems cool on the idea. In May, National Public Radio obtained internal NASA emails via a Freedom of Information Act that revealed worries about the risks of a spacewalk both to the astronauts and to Hubble.
A key issue appears to be that a spacewalk from a Dragon capsule has never been conducted. Dragon has no airlock nor a robotic arm to grab Hubble. Nor have SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity spacesuits ever been tested. That’s one of the tasks of the Polaris Dawn program.
Hubble’s Heritage
If Hubble is ever visited again, it would constitute the most famous spacewalk since 1993, when astronauts on NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour visited it to install corrective optics. The stakes were high. Shortly after Hubble launched in 1990, it was discovered that its mirror had an aberration, causing images to be blurry. Further servicing missions took place in 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2009 to upgrade various components,
Although the James Webb Space Telescope may have overtaken it in the public’s consciousness, it only deals in near and far-infrared light. Hubble continues to make unique observations because it sees the universe in ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light.
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