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Interesting read. On the other hand, I remembered that hubble was manually repaired by astronauts mutliple times back in the space shuttle era. I'm wondering t
by azurezyq 8y ago
Interesting read.
On the other hand, I remembered that hubble was manually repaired by astronauts mutliple times back in the space shuttle era. I'm wondering that, do we have capabilities to perform in-space non-ISS-kind repairs now? Soyuz may be able to do in-space rendezvous but cargo space is limited. Soyuz+Progress composition (may be too complicated)?
- craftyguy 8y agoNo we no longer have this capability. Soyuz capsules are not really designed for EVA.
- varjag 8y agoYou can do EVA with Soyuz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_5#EVA_details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_5#EVA_details However that mission will unlikely be possible for both technical and political reasons.
- InclinedPlane 8y agoServicing HST with a Soyuz is basically impossible. Hubble is in a higher altitude orbit in a significantly lower inclination than the launch site for crewed Soyuz vehicles. To perform the plane change maneuver (of 23 deg.) would require a delta-V of 1.5 km/s (20% of the orbital velocity at the typical Soyuz destination altitude). That would require bringing nearly 4 tonnes of extra propellant onboard the Soyuz, which isn't feasible. Additionally, this doesn't include the added weight of the docking adapter and Hubble replacement parts that would need to be brought along. It's conceivable that a repair mission might be possible with the soon to come into service US crew capsules (Dragon 2 and Starliner) since the rockets that launch them have more performance than the Soyuz, but even then it would be a pretty ambitious mission.
- craftyguy 8y agoYea I know you can do EVA from the Soyuz, but it's not really designed for the types of extended EVA missions required to repair the Hubble.