NASA and SpaceX are working on a project that would give the Hubble Telescope a new lease on life. The project is called “Hubble for Life.” The goal of the project is to make it possible for the Hubble Telescope to continue providing valuable data to scientists for years to come. The Hubble Telescope has been in use since 1990. It has been used to study different aspects of space and time. The telescope has also been used to study the universe. The telescope is one of the most important pieces of equipment that NASA has. The project is very important because it will help improve our understanding of space and time. It will also help us better understand the universe. The project is very important because it will help us learn more about our own planet and its environment.
NASA, the primary space agency of the United States, and SpaceX, a space launch provider, have announced a new partnership to study the feasibility of boosting the Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit using the Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX. Hubble has been visited by spacecraft five times already for repairs and servicing, but each previous mission was carried out by astronauts on the Space Shuttle, which is no longer available.
The plans are still in the early stages, and right now it’s more of a model for other servicing missions than a firm plan specifically for Hubble. NASA said in a blog post, “SpaceX — in partnership with the Polaris Program — proposed this study to better understand the technical challenges associated with servicing missions. This study is non-exclusive, and other companies may propose similar studies with different rockets or spacecraft as their model.”
NASA’s hope is to use a Dragon spacecraft to push the Hubble Space Telescope from its current altitude of 535 km to 600 km, restoring its original altitude from 1990. Like many satellites in Earth orbit, the telescope is gradually losing altitude, which is expected to accelerate as it comes closer. A servicing mission could add more years to Hubble’s life, but no matter if it happens or not, NASA plans to “safely de-orbit or dispose of Hubble” when it can’t be used anymore.
The new James Webb Space Telescope is far more powerful than Hubble, and has already provided us with some incredible images and data about the universe. Still, two space telescopes are better than one — NASA recently pointed both telescopes at the same place for the first time, to observe the DART impact on Dimorphos.
Source: NASA, Ars Technica
