There are many chances that a robot will be sent to extend the life of the Hubble telescope * NASA spokespeople announced this week that they plan to move forward with plans to send a robot to save the aging space telescope.
Avi Blizovsky
NASA is optimistic about the possibility of extending the life of the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the most valuable tools for astronomy, by using a robot. According to scientists and engineers, preliminary studies indicate that there is a good chance of developing a robotic spacecraft that can repair and upgrade the robot - a task so far carried out by Astronauts Even some scientists who initially doubted that a robot could carry out the mission are becoming convinced.
NASA expects that a plan for the implementation of the robotic mission will be formulated by the fall and that additional studies, which will be completed by next summer, will clarify whether it will be possible to implement the initiative. If the answer is positive, they say, the burning issue will be raising funds for the mission, which according to early estimates will cost more from a billion dollars.
The Hubble was at the center of a wave of criticism that NASA received in January, when the director of the agency, Sean O'Keefe, announced that he had decided to cancel a planned mission to repair the telescope. The decision meant that the Hubble would stop operating in 2007 or 2008. O'Keefe justified his decision by saying that the continued operation of the telescope is not Justifies the risks associated with a manned mission to repair it.
The stinging criticism of the decision to abandon the 14-year-old telescope stunned NASA. Critics, astronomers, politicians and citizens, noted that four previous manned repair missions had ended safely and attributed the telescope's groundbreaking discoveries to a miracle. O'Keefe did not back down from his decision, but surrendered. to pressure from Congress and agreed to keep the option of launching a manned shuttle While NASA is looking for ways to extend Hubble's life in other ways.
In the spring of 2003, engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland raised the possibility of launching a robotic spacecraft to carry out the repairs. Such a spacecraft would be required to perform particularly complicated stunts - for example, meeting and connecting two unmanned spacecraft, and then launching a robotic device operated by remote control, which could To replace parts in the sensitive telescope without damaging it.
NASA officials and others, who initially doubted the chances of success of an unmanned spacecraft, now say it may do the job better than a manned shuttle. "Most of the technology for robotic maintenance already exists, but in separate parts," said Dr. Edward Weiler, director The new Goddard Center. "The real challenge is to connect everything together and create a functioning system."
O'Keefe visited the Goddard Center on August 9 and was so impressed by what he saw that he decided to throw down the gauntlet to the development team - to develop a cohesive plan to launch a robotic spacecraft within a year.
The function of the Hubble, which was last visited by astronauts in 2002, is in danger due to the weakening of the batteries and the gyroscopes that help with navigation. The final repair mission using a manned shuttle, planned for mid-2006, was supposed to replace the aging parts and add two new instruments that would improve the telescope's science capability.
A team of experts on behalf of the National Academy of Sciences in the US stated in a report published on July 13, that the space telescope is too expensive for science to be allowed to "die". NASA should commit to extending Hubble's life, the experts said, even if it means launching another shuttle. The experts said a robotic mission might succeed, but it would be so complex and difficult to implement that NASA should keep the option of launching the manned shuttle.
A malfunction that occurred in Hubble less than a month ago made it clear how fragile the telescope is. An important instrument, an imaging spectrograph responsible for about a third of Hubble's major scientific findings, stopped working due to the collapse of a power converter. It's unclear whether a robotic maintenance mission could fix this defect, but according to NASA officials, the agency's engineers are exploring such a possibility.
Craig Steidl, director of NASA's space exploration division, said his office is considering several proposals for robotic spacecraft for Hubble. According to Alfonso Diaz, the agency's new director of science, the leading candidate is an agency robot The Canadian spacecraft called Dexter, which is being developed for use on the International Space Station. Other options are the University of Maryland's Ranger and a humanoid robot called Robonaut, which is under development at the Johnson Space Center. of NASA. But according to Diaz, Dexter is most likely to be ready in time.
Dexter, previously called the SpecialPurposeDexterous Manipulator, has a headless humanoid form, with two 3.3-foot-long arms, and "hands" in the form of retractable clamps. Each arm, equipped with sensors to absorb the pressures applied to the objects it grasps, can move objects weighing up to 590 kg.
According to initial plans, a spacecraft consisting of two parts, weighing approximately 9,000 kg, will be launched to Hubble. The spacecraft will reach the telescope and use a mechanical arm to grab a handle on the telescope that was grabbed by the shuttle in previous missions. At this point, the robotic spacecraft will attach to a docking site at the bottom of the telescope. The robot, mounted on the end of the mechanical arm, will open the telescope doors, take out instruments old and will install new gyroscopes and batteries.When the repair mission is complete, the part of the maintenance spacecraft where the old instruments will be stored and the robot will detach from the telescope and burn up in the atmosphere.
NASA partially responded to the pressure - it will launch a mission to upgrade food, but it will be a robotic mission
18/8/2004
NASA spokesmen announced this week that they plan to move forward with plans to send a robot to rescue the aging space telescope.
A final discussion on whether or not to launch, in 3 and a half years, a robotic service mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope - will not be held until next summer. Nevertheless, it appears that the leading candidate on behalf of the Canadian Space Agency is "Dexterous", (or "Dexter" for short), a noisy device with two mechanical arms that is somewhat similar to the robots that are common in MDB movies. The robot will be able to perform Most, if not all, of the necessary tasks that space explorers are expected to perform on their own. Originally, "Dexter" was designed for manual work at the International Space Station (International Space Station - ISS).
Usually, human astronauts are the ones who take care of the "Hubble", but there are many obstacles in which it is supported with the help of robots to fix all the "illnesses" of the 14-year-old telescope. Nevertheless, NASA's principal administrator, Sean Akiff, "grounded" an astronaut who was about to go on a mission, due to concerns about the safety and soundness of the space shuttles since the Columbia disaster.
It seemed as if the end of "Hubble" was near, and it would not be able to transmit any more vital images to the Earth in the coming years. Hope returned to the eyes of the world when there was widespread support from astronauts and scientists alike towards a sharp turn in thinking and to consider a mechanical solution - robots. And now, after After months of engineering analysis, robotics is indeed the space agency's preferred approach.
Last week, O'Keeffe gave as much encouragement as possible for the robotic mission, praising preliminary work done by Hubble scientists and Goddard Space Flight Center engineers. He also urged them to plan repair missions that would require as few astronauts as possible.
"Everyone says 'We want to save Hubble', well - let's save it!", O'Keeffe said in an interview with him.
O'Keeffe will go to Congress to ask for the money needed to complete the rescue project. The estimated cost is between 1 and 6 million dollars, both to develop and launch a robot that will perform the necessary upgrades to continue the proper operation of the space telescope and to take it out of orbit once its work is finished.
Al Diaz, the top boss of NASA's Science Mission, says: "Of all the robots that have been proposed for the aforementioned mission, including NASA's own human Robonaut, 'Dexter' is still the most promising robot. Currently, no tasks have been found that would be defined as outside the range of the selected robot's capability. But still, we must now look at the overall task and try to understand what risks may arise, which need to be taken into account during each of the tasks we want the robot to perform."
For example, Dexter is able to manipulate Hubble's doors, access the scientific instruments and use tools to install a large amount of new parts. It should be remembered that over a decade ago an astronaut encountered difficulties in closing one of the doors. The question remains how the robot will deal with the fact that some of the doors may not be as good as before. In any case, the guiding principle of the robot in the project will be: "Do no harm".
"Dexter" will pull out, assemble and burn - "Dexter". Has a headless human form, with two arms ending in retractable clamps
Among the most stressful tasks: installing new batteries; Installation of a new gyroscope, which will maintain the stability of the facility; and replacing two scientific instruments with more modern and advanced cameras. The engineers are now checking whether the robot will be able to repair the 7-year-old spectrograph, on top of Hubble, which recently broke down.
The main goal is to give the "Hubble" five years of life beyond any repair task. Without proper help, the batteries on board were surely the first to "sink into a world coma" in 2007 or 2008.
The original robot is planned to be launched to the space station in 2007, in order to provide a replacement for the Canadian robotic arm that is already there and to assist with additional tasks that require a certain "sophistication".
Assuming that Dexter is selected for the mission, it is not yet certain whether the current model already built for the space station will be used to perform the required work, or whether another one will be built dedicated to the Hubble telescope.
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Translated by: Alon Zeavi
