[extropy-chat] OTV Hubble Rescue Mission?/was Re: [How to build a Space Habitat] Re: Soyuz Hubble Repair Mission--reply from Mike Lorrey

[Dan]

On Sunday, January 30, 2005 11:44 AM bestonnet_00 bestonnet_00 at yahoo.com
wrote:
>> Of course it doesn't. ISS got put where it is
>> so the Russians could launch as much
>> cargo to it as possible from their high
>> latitude sites, while the Hubble is where
>> it is because its allows the most cargo to
>> be lifted there from launches at Cape
>> Canaveral. Since the shuttle isn't going to
>> the Hubble any more, we should either start
>> launching Soyuz from the Cape, or move
>> the shuttles to Siberia, or both.
>
> A Soyuz pad is being built at Kourou that
> should be able to reach the Hubble.

I'm not so sure, but you might be right.  All other things being equal,
an equatorial launch would give the vehicle more delta-V and that could,
e.g., put more fuel on orbit, allowing a Soyuz (or whatever) to have
more fuel to spare for orbital changes, including orbital plane change.
(Hubble is in an inclined orbit, no?)  Of course, this could be
compensated for by launch vector as well, but I don't know the costs.

The other problem with Kourou or the Australian site is neither have
yet, to my knowledge, launched a Soyuz.  That might be a few years off,
which might put it out of the time frame of a Hubble repair mission.

>> Anyways, my Phillips OTV idea doesn't
>> require the shuttle to go to the Hubble.
>> The OTV can be launched by a Titan or
>> Delta IV or smaller booster, so it would
>> cost ~$10-20 million to launch.
>
> A Titan or Delta IV is going to cost more
> like 100 to 200 million.

Likely true.  The bigger Titans go up to $400 million, IIRC, which would
make it compared to a Shuttle mission.

>> If the OTV is built and sitting in a warehouse
>> somewhere, it might be picked up for surplus.
>
> I think it unlikely that it actually is sitting in
> a warehouse somewhere.

I don't want to diss Mike, but I think it's pure fantasy to think a
working OTV is laying around somewhere at Vandenburg or Groom Lake just
waiting for us to fly it.  I don't think the OTV ever got past initial
development and project is either on hold or dead now.  Reviving it
might be in order -- though I'd prefer it done outside the ambit of a
public space program -- but unless there's some kind of crash program or
big breakthrough, I don't see it being ready in time for this mission.

Now, if Mike has more than just pure speculation on the OTV, I'm willing
to listen, but his continued attempt to get someone to admit the thing
is ready to fly or actually being used appears to me to great material
for an "X-Files" episode, but not for a Hubble repair mission.  (And,
for the record, yes, the US government -- along with all the others -- 
does hide stuff, but that doesn't mean that that's so with the OTV.
Speculation <> evidence.)

Verily,

Dan
    See "Tackling Tebye Again!" at:
http://uweb1.superlink.net/~neptune/Tebye2.html