[extropy-chat] Bush's Schedule for NASA

[Kevin Freels]

SO does this mean that they are all taking the "moon return" seriously? What
good is the Hubble if you have a moonbase? Couldn;t you put a much better
one on the moon and service it for much less than the Hubble as long as you
already have a base there?I thought we wanted people thinking "long-term"
instead of worrying about the short term results.
Kevin Freels


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John K Clark" <jonkc at att.net>
To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 9:37 AM
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Bush's Schedule for NASA


> There had been much debate within NASA if there should be more visits to
the
> Hubble Space Telescope to maintain it after the one scheduled for next
year.
> Because it is one of the few NASA programs that actually produces science
> the astronomical community had been lobbying hard for an extra visit in
> about 2008 that would extend its useful life well beyond the end of the
> decade. Yesterday NASA announced its decision, not only would be no extra
> flight in 2008 but the scheduled one in 2005 was canceled too, this
despite
> the fact that they already spent  $200,000,000 developing new instruments
> that were to be installed on Hubble next year.  NASA said it would cost
> $500,000,000 to launch the shuttle to the Hubble and that's just too
> expensive; instead NASA will develop an unmanned probe that would latch
onto
> Hubble, the probe would then fire its rocket to change its orbit so Hubble
> would crash into the sea. To add insult to injury the $300,000,000 needed
to
> develop this assassin will come from NASA's astronomy budget.
>
> Meanwhile NASA will continue to support the much much more expensive Space
> Station so astronauts can perform science fair level experiments designed
by
> junior high school kids.
>
>   John K Clark      jonkc at att.net
>
>
>
>
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