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> There is a big difference between a projected life of 1-3 years, and a prestige mission with a long lifespan. Hubble has been operating for ~30 years now. Is
by bigiain 5y ago
> There is a big difference between a projected life of 1-3 years, and a prestige mission with a long lifespan. Hubble has been operating for ~30 years now.
Is there anything other than manoeuvring/orbit-correction propellant that puts an upper limit of t5he James Webbs projected life? (At least until micro meteors trash too much of the optics?) Is it possible a resupply mission capability could effectivel7y extend its useful life indefinitely? (Did they even bother putting a fuel filler on it?)
- OrvalWintermute 5y agoResupply is definitely a possibility. Though resupply missions are not yet going out to those orbits, it is completely conceivable that they will in time. For the price of a $100M mission they'll be able to recoup or fix more expensive ones. I normally hear about batteries, reaction wheels, and fuel limiting life, but I think that would relate most to orbit, propulsion type, etc. IDK about a fuel filler.
- Rebelgecko 5y agoThere's a lot of miscellaneous things that can break on a spacecraft Reaction wheels (which use momentum to help you point the vehicle) are a semi common failire. There's usually some redundancy built in, but if enough of them wear out you'll lose stability and pointing accuracy. Even radiation-hardened electronics will wear out over time. If you look at unprocessed images from the Hubble, there's a shitload of pixels that have been fried in the cameras (the effect kind of look like stuck pixels in a computer monitor)