NASA studies feasibility of using telerobotic systems to service space telescope
NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center is studying the feasibility of a robot mission in 2009 to extend the life of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble service missions, which would have been carried out with the Space Shuttle, have been cancelled since the Columbia broke up on re-entry in February 2003. The final servicing mission was to have taken place in June 2006.
There are plans to either deorbit the Hubble craft or raise its orbit using a "space tug", but the life of Hubble's instruments could be extended with a robotic mission to replace batteries and gyroscopes.
One system under consideration is the Robonaut, jointly developed by NASA Johnson Space Center's Robot Systems Technology Branch and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Robonaut looks and functions like a space-walking astronaut.
Also under consideration is Ranger, a dexterous manipulator robot under development at the University of Maryland's Space Systems Laboratory.
Such a mission may contribute to the telerobotic skills required for missions to the moon or Mars and kick-start the fledgling business of servicing, boosting or deorbiting spacecraft. Goddard has received nearly 30 proposals in response to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope End of Mission Alternatives request for proposals.
TIM FURNISS / LONDON
Source: Flight International
