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