Should we let Hubble Telescope die?

Oh, my mistake. I thought you meant put a manned base on Titan, not a space station by or around it.Actually that is a fantastic idea. You are right about fuel and the vantage point of studying both a rocky planetoid with atmosphere and a gas giant at the same time would be unbeatable.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)"...don't believe I'm taken in by stories I have heard, I just read the Daily News and swear by every word.."(Steely Dan)

I have seen this discussed before. The amount of data they would get, not to mention the fact that they'd be exploring another world's oceans boggles my mind.

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"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife." ~ Douglas AdamsI wish more people would shave with Occam's Razor. Orson Scott Card

Its kinda like putting money into the old car until we can afford the new one. As for Hubble:
1) Does it pay its way by what it accomplishes?
2) Is there any risk of wasting money by refurbishing it?
3) Might private funds to refurbish it be raised and the telescope used by various timeshare clients?
4) Does Dubya ever know how to wisely spend U.S. money???

I think anything that increases out knowledge of the universe - a one time cost for a forever known - pays for itself, and the Hubble has done that.re 4 - does he know how to spend any money wisely? seems to me all his "private" company attempts were failures if I recall ...what concerns me is taking money out of the program altogether, whether it is to refurbish or replace.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
{{{Buddha walks off laughing with joy}}}

RAZD writes:

quote:

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consider a new space telescope that is not one satellite but four or six in sychronous orbits and time synched

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I love the idea; from the parallax alone we'd get all sorts of new information. I tend to spring to the defense of Hubble, though, since I don't think any such project as you propose is under consideration (correct me if I'm wrong; I'd be delighted to know).I suspect that there may be some influence of the religious right on the White House plans to scrap Hubble. Those photos are awfully difficult for fundies to explain in the context of the bible. I think they may see martian projects as less threatening.

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Keep America Safe AND Free!

especially now that we know there are no canals there...

Everyone knows that the Devil lives on Uranus!

Do all of you understand that we have already built (in fact they were completed before the shuttle disaster) all of the parts needed to upgrade Hubble? Those parts sit and have sat, on the shelf deteriorating while we speak. The biggest part of the costs has already been spent. The only remaining issue is whether or not humans should attempt the upgrade and repairs.If the shuttle is recertified for use, yet we find it too dangerous to use for rendezvous type missions, what the hell is it's purpose?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I was not aware of this fact. That changes everything. Truly if we are too scared to run an upgrade mission for a system that has already produced so much, with parts we already have, then we have wasted money in both the shuttle and Hubble.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)"...don't believe I'm taken in by stories I have heard, I just read the Daily News and swear by every word.."(Steely Dan)

Here is a recent editorial on the issue. We have all the stuff sitting on the shelf deteriorating. It is all designed and built specifically for Hubble and everything but the knowledge gained is wasted if we don't use it.If the shuttle is reduced to being simply a lift platform, then we need to scrap the concept and just used rockets. They are far less expensive and remove the human risk factor. But the whole point of the shuttle was to be able to place human talent, flexibility, ingenuity and creativeness on scene in space. If we are going to abandon that then let's just dump the whole manned space program.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Sounds like an army commander that has given up on running necessary missions, because on the last one some of his men got killed.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)"...don't believe I'm taken in by stories I have heard, I just read the Daily News and swear by every word.."(Steely Dan)

I thought that was where heaven was? (I have it on good authority from a fundie lady on another board. she also channels the holy spirit when she types {{it comes out in all caps for easy comprehension}} and so we take her word for it ... {{she's a sweetie unless riled up}})SuZaNNe says so.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
{{{Buddha walks off laughing with joy}}}