Ellie in Space 🚀💫
@esherifftv
WHAT THE HUBBLE?!
The Hubble Space Telescope is limping along, expected to end its lifecycle in the mid-2030s... which would burn it up in the atmosphere on its return back to Earth.
Jared Isaacman has offered to save the Hubble, but NASA is reluctant to accept the help...
https://x.com/esherifftv/status/1800978589489430565Ellie in Space 🚀💫
@esherifftv
ยท
Jared Isaacman has even offered to self-fund the maintenance mission and said, "the mission would be a great thing to do for science and research across the world," Isaacman, who previously orbited Earth in a SpaceX craft, said to Scientific American in 2022.
So, what gives?
According to internal emails at NASA, the main concern is that the proposed mission to save the Hubble would involve a spacewalk, sponsored by SpaceX, that would seek to refurbish the telescope by way of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule.
Several top scientists expressed worries about the Polaris spacewalk being "unnecessary and risky."
Spacewalks have been performed on the Hubble before, but SpaceX "has yet to prove that astronauts can safely venture outside of the company's Crew Dragon capsule," according to Futurism. This is because unlike NASA spacecraft, SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule does not have an airlock, so "for an astronaut to step outside, the entire interior will have to be depressurized and exposed to the vacuum of space when the hatch opens," said NPR.
Beyond this, prior NASA missions to the Hubble using the space shuttle were able to "[linger] around Hubble for a week, giving astronauts time to tinker with the hardware, but Dragon doesn't have that capability," said Extreme Tech. Officials also expressed concerns "about the 'extreme immaturity of the spacesuit,' referring to the EVA suit [SpaceX] has since unveiled."
