They should at least maintain the Hubble until they have another replacement, with more advanced optics. Other wise we go backwards not forwards. Too busy thinking how they can afford to bomb another country!
Hey, just read this piece of news - Sean O'Keefe has resigned! He's going on to bigger and better things with a new job that will earn him more that what NASA is paying him. The full story is here:
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1407_1.asp
I agree Paul, it would definitely be worth maintaining Hubble after all that it has achieved for us both scientifically and in capturing our imaginations. Even my workmates know what Hubble is!
If they are going to service the beast, it would have to be soon. It's good that they are ditching the robotic servicing mission as that would have taken longer than a manned mission. Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope is slated for launch in 2011 so there would be a major scientific gap if Hubble were to remain silent until then.
As to whether or not they can afford it Paul, that's another story altogether but I will say no more.
I read last night that they are finally putting pressure on Nasa through a consultative committee to upgrade Hubble with a shuttle mission. Looks very promising and so they should, why go backwards with optical astronomy.
The suggested service is slated for either the first mission back or one of the next after that. At least that's what the article was saying. Can't at this stage remember where I read it.
