Save the
Hubble 02/12/2004
messages
Read messages
of the previous day, here
Save the Hubble Inspiring Message of the Day:
"Thank you, thank
you, for your excellent efforts to extend the life of the HST! Though
I am not the most eloquent in expressing the feeling, if I were testifying
on its behalf, besides presenting all the wonderful data it's given
us, I might say something like this:
We have all heard the assertion that continuing to service the Hubble
is expensive and risky. Many worthwhile endeavors are. Surely we would
be wiser to invest our precious "blood and treasure" satisfying
the human quest for knowledge than, as we have done so often of late,
to squander them indulging in human animosity. With proper care, the
HST is a productive research instrument which still has much to contribute
to our quest for knowledge.
Let us honor those who have committed their lives to space exploration
from the ground, those who have risked their lives in spaceflight,
and those who have lost their lives to expand our horizons: when the
Shuttle is returned to flight, let us dedicate one future STS mission
to repairing and upgrading the Hubble.
Sincerely, Karen Craig Lexington, KY (I
couldn't possibly be more eloquent the this. Thank you Karen!. S.t.H.)
Save
the Hubble Idea of the Day:
I'll
leave this one here for a little longer, it's very interesting! (S.t.H.)
" Apologies
if I am missing something obvious - but consider the following.
The main reason for not servicing the Hubble is there is no safe
haven or tile repair system if the orbiter were to be damaged during
take off. The shuttle payload bay has dimensions 15x60ft (4.6x18.3m)
and has a maximum payload weight of approx 50,000lbs (22,680kg)
A Soyuz TM is 7m long, 2.7m diameter and weighs about 7 tons. So....
on a mission to replace Hubble gyros or add new instruments why
not just load up 2 x Soyuz into the orbiter payload bay? In the
unlikely event of the shuttle being damaged on the way to orbit
you have a bail out facilty for 6 astronauts.
If transfer from the orbiter to 2 different Soyuz's is a problem
then fly a skeleton crew of 3 and engineer a docking adapter directly
from the shuttle payload bay to the Soyuz." Andy
Long, UK (First it was the Radar now
this! These guys are awsome! S.t.H.)
Save the Hubble Hoax of the Day:
"My
name is Alan Hubble. Edwin Hubble was My Great, Great Grandfather.
The Hubble Telescope has done so much for us and can do so much
more. It has only explored a small fraction of is to be discovered
out there. So Mr O'Keefe , If your cars battery is going bad do
you take it to the junk yard. No I think not. It more than likely
has many more miles left. My question is, why is NASA even thinking
about send the Hubble to it's dome when it was designed to be repaired
in space"Alan
Hubble. (To have the authenticity of the message
checked I sent it to The
Hubbell Family Historical Society - an
organization that "was formed to include all the descendants
of Richard Hubball, our immigrant ancestor and the progenitor
of the Hubbell / Hubble / Hubbel / Hubel / Huble families in North
America." Mr. Hilbert Hubble, genealogist of T.H.F.H.S. kindly
sent the following answer: "Edwin Powell Hubble did
not have any children. Ref the 1995 "Additions and Revisions
to the History and Genealogy of the Hubbell Family" Hilbert
Hubble. Now comes the funny part, take a look
at the domain name of the e-mail address of "Alan Hubble":
@lake-erie.navy.mil . Could any one of the
more than 98.000 savethehubble.com visitors give me a hint of what
is going on here? (S.t.H.)
Save the Hubble Reason of the Day:
"Hello,
The wonder, stimulation of imagination, pride, and knowledge the Hubble
Space Telescope has engendered should, on the face of it, be enough
to justify the maintenance of the Hubble. There must be hundreds of
private and public funded institutions which would benefit from the
continued operation of that magnificent piece of technology. Perhaps
some way might be found to fund the required maintenance by combining
many sources of capital to "do the job". It could, perhaps,
be part of a space mission in the near future. This may all sound naive',
however I'm sure that the scientists who envisioned the H.S.T. perhaps
sounded naive' when they first theorized the telescope.
Past proven value to science and the possibility of future discovery
by the H.S.T. must count for something."
Regards,
Charles P. Earnest
Save the Hubble Angry Remark of the Day:
"I
wasn't angry till I read the 'Hubble
Angry Remark of the Day'. From a financial point of view then
what do you think? What is cheaper? Fixing something or buying a new
one? It is not the same as a car. Yeah, sometimes fixing your car
is going to be more expensive that buying another one but the problem
is, you dont have to fly your car into orbit. Thats the expensive
part! Secondly, how many people have been educated from hubble?
I know I check out the pictures often enough and am amazed by the
pictures I see. When there is a replacement for Hubble then that is
fine, we will get better pictures but I remember hubble from when
I was a kid (I'm 27yrs old) and have seen so many pictures that I
wouldn't have seen in my lifetime if it wasn't for Hubble. Anyway,
back to the point. Save the Hubble.
Sincerely, Garret Laborde, Baton Rouge, La. (We're
fighting to Garret, we're fighting to!. S.t.H.)
Save the Hubble
Best Political Challenge
of the Day:
(this IS a democratic site!)
"Dear
People,
The Bush administration has a history of pursuing secret agendas dictated
by their political supporters, and the largest Republican voting block
is fundamentalist evangelical Christians who believe the Bible is
totally literally true and the Earth is just a few thousand years
old. Is it farfetched to wonder if Bush just wants to have the Hubble
die a quick death so its visual-spectrum pictures no longer threaten
the credibility of the evangelical's narrow Earth-centric theology?
This new policy appears just before the Hubble was due to be upgraded
with instruments designed to confirm new theories about the birth
and structure of the universe. Such a cover-up of scientific truth
is exactly what happened to Galileo, who was prohibited by the Pope
from searching the heavens with a telescope because it threatened
the Earth-centric beliefs of the religion in power." Peter
Thompson San Rafael, California
Save the Hubble Philosophical Quote of the Day:
"I won't
try to assemble scientific arguments for saving the Hubble: I'm sure
others are ably doing that. Perhaps you'll understand what this marvel
of vision has brought to us by explaining that when people ask me
if I want to go to Heaven when I die, I tell them "No, I want
to go to the Eagle Nebula." Thank you, Hubble.Lisa
Miller Long Beach, CA
Save the Hubble Non-English Message of the Day:
"No soy mas
que un humilde estudiante de Informatica de Madrid, España.
Tan solo dar mi apoyo solidario al intento de rescate de esa maravilla
que nos ha mostrado lo insignificante y pequeñito que puede
llegar a ser el ser humano. ¿Sera por eso que quieran acabar
con el? :) " Raul Lopez
S.t.H. translates:
"I am just a humble informatics student in Madrid, Spain. I just want to give my support to the intent of rescuing this wonder that has shown us how small and insignificant can be the human being. Maybe that's why they want to get rid of it." Raul Lopez
Save
the Hubble Reason Not to of the Day:
(this
really IS a democratic site!)
"WE simply cannot afford everything at the same time. The Shuttle is perhaps the machine which made the Hubble and ISS possible. Perhaps, that is the space artifact that should be saved but the time has come to replace it and its demise is inevitable. Even Hubble has its limitations and will soon need to be replaced. Without unpopular decisions which generate vision, man and science will not go forward into infinity. Hubble is nice to have but not essential for man to explore space." William Jardin
Read messages of the previous day, here