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It's not just orbital boosting. It's also doing things like swapping out reaction wheels and dying hardware of various kinds. And as soon as you're doing that
by mlyle 4y ago
It's not just orbital boosting.
It's also doing things like swapping out reaction wheels and dying hardware of various kinds.
And as soon as you're doing that, you're probably using humans. And then because the cost is already so big, you might as well replace some instruments, too...
- deelowe 4y agoDo they plan to do more manned missions to Hubble?
- mlyle 4y agoHubble re-enters in 2037, and is useless because of orbital mechanics a few years before that. I think it's unlikely the current reaction wheel system lasts to that ~2032 timeframe, let alone significantly beyond. Of 6 wheels, 2 are working well, 1 is dodgy, and 3 have failed. 3 are required to keep orientation.
- mkw5053 4y agoI thought they could now control it with only 2 reaction wheels [1] [1] https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10543974.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10543974.pdf
- gs17 4y agoThis proposal (by being part of Polaris) is implied to be manned as far as I can tell.
- thaeli 4y agoIt's also proposed to be funded by Isaacman. Reading between the lines, he's probably planning to go to space personally and fix the Hubble. Which is kinda a vanity project at that point, but hey, I'll take it.
- SyzygistSix 4y agoBoth he and SpaceX seem committed to expanding the capabilities of private spaceflight and private astronauts. If they are into it, why not?
- melling 4y agoYes, humans are needed until they’re not. Once they’re no longer needed the cost of repair drops by 100x. Musk’s android seems like a bit of a gimmick but hopefully he stirs up enough imagination in people that we get a few breakthroughs in robotics. Then we can explore the entire solar system…build bases on Mars and the moons of Jupiter, etc without sending humans
- ClumsyPilot 4y agowe can't even get a robot to fix a dishwasher or to sort trash. Let alone am orbital telescope
- queuebert 4y agoI can't even get my dishwasher to clean my dishes. This is not the future I was promised.
- WalterBright 4y agoThe trick is let your dog lick them clean.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agobiological automation is always superior
- TMWNN 4y ago>Where can you find another non-linear servo-mechanism weighing only 150 pounds and having great adaptability, that can be produced so cheaply by completely unskilled labor? —Scott Crossfield, US test pilot <https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/albert-scott-crossfield/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/albert-scott-crossfield/>
- melling 4y agoYeah, many people think it’s impossible until someone else does it. The game of Go wasn’t close to being won by a computer until DeepMind came along. https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/9/11185030/google-deepmind-alphago-go-artificial-intelligence-impact https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/9/11185030/google-deepmind-a...
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoA boost module can semipermanently attach itself and take over all the maneuvering functions with its own hardware suite.
- WalterBright 4y agoHa, found the practical engineer! I didn't think of that. Brilliant!
- xani_ 4y agoOr Kerbal Space Program player lmao. I definitely did that once or twice, just send a small craft with some RCS thrusters and reaction wheels then attach it to spacecraft via The Claw
- pkaye 4y agoOn the last Hubble service mission, they added a soft capture mechanism. They could attach a boost module to that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#/media/File:Soft_Capture_Mechanism_installed_on_Hubble_(illustration).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#/media/...