I thought the ISS was permanent

[Baron von Richthofen]

:eyepop:I herd on the news that NASA wont have a replacement for the shuttle until two years before the ISS is abandon, I thought the ISS was permanent

[TrevorW]

Nope

what happens when the Hubble goes too

the good old US of A ain't flying that flag anymore either

and doubts exist over moon and mars missions

too much money spent fighting unwinnable wars in countries where they ain't welcome

[Baron von Richthofen]

:screwy:You would think they would have more sense after Vietnam

[Jules76]

The James Webb Space Telescope

http://webbtelescope.org/webb_telescope/

NASA plans to launch it in 2014.

[TrevorW]

A million miles from Earth, I wonder who's going to fix it

a) if it doesn't work as they expect or
b) when something breaks down as it inevitably will

:shrug:

[renormalised]

Plans to, but whether it does or not is another matter. Look at the TPF, it's nothing more than a pipe dream now. They've had their budget slashed again, so they're trying to do too much with even less money than they had last year. This is where things could get dangerous, with corners being cut in order to save dollars.

[mithrandir]

Quote (URL at end).:
When I was the Program Manager for the Space Shuttle, ...

So to the hoary old punch line: Would you want to put your life on the top of two million parts, each designed and manufactured by the lowest bidder?


http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/waynehalesblog/posts/post_1229459081779.html

[Ric]

I have always thought that instead of dumping the ISS into the atmosphere to burn up, why not fit it out for space travel.

Add some shields and rockets and bingo instant Mars traveller, plenty of room etc.

What do the more engineer minded members think. It would certainly be cheaper than starting from scratch.

Cheers

[leinad]

I'd be interested to see if it would sold to some Commerical Corporation.
Convert her into a R&R Space Dock for commercial space flights or something similar.

[multiweb]

:confuse3:... I'm no rocket scientist but a big mirror like that, modular or not, in the open with no protection what so ever... Is it meant to last very long once deployed? :whistle: HST had a compact design in a tube with a closing flap.

[Baron von Richthofen]

I think once the ISS is abandoned there will be very little interest in space
What a pity :anaut:

[Jules76]

Good questions. And I think that probably has something to do with the small mission time this telescope will have. Apparently it's only meant to run for 5 years, 10 years at most. There was talk of attaching a "grappling hook" to it so future space missions could possibly work on it, but I haven't heard whether that will go ahead or not.





Man, what is with all this cynicism on this board. :confused2: It's no pipe dream, parts and being built and tested as we speak. And it's not just NASA involved in this, there are 15 countries involved in it's development including the European Space Agency (it will be launched on the Ariane 5) and the Canadian Space Ageny (who are providing sensors). I don't see it falling anytime soon, and from what I've read the budget is still on target.





Good question. I managed to find some information below.

http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/faq.html







There's more information on the Webb Telescope on Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope

Seriously this is better than nothing. Let's try and think a little more positive. :thumbsup:

[renormalised]

The TPF was deferred indefinitely (in 2006) as the funding hasn't materialised (as of this year) and DARWIN (the ESA's mission of similar capability) has been canceled, even before it got out of the preliminary stages. NASA's 2009-2010 budget has been slashed as well. I'm afraid what you think is cynicism is actually cold, hard political and economic reality. If the pollies don't like it or they can save money by cutting out stuff like this, they'll do so quicker than they slash it from their cash cows like military spending and such.

[renormalised]

Speaking of the TPF...if you look at it's top 10 target stars, #10 is 40Eridani. They don't need to point the TPF at there to know there's intelligent life on a planet orbiting 40Eridani. If you wan to know the answer to the question, just ask the guy below:P:P:D:D