​NASA will work with SpaceX to explore different methods and joint missions over the next 6 months to extend the life of the Hubble Space Telescope; one of those methods would be to move the telescope to a higher altitude, but NASA said it would explore other options. NASA also hopes that this research will benefit other space missions, not just the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery, and since then it has been visited 5 times by astronaut crews to repair it as needed or equip it with state-of-the-art scientific instruments. art instead of the old ones, that’s why Hubble still works today.

These missions were made possible by NASA’s use of the Space Shuttle, a highly sophisticated reusable orbital vehicle that could dock with the Space Telescope, and the astronauts could perform necessary repairs during several off-orbit missions. Being located in the lower atmosphere gave the space telescope an advantage over ground-based observatories, allowing it to produce images that revolutionized astronomy.

Now that the space shuttles are no longer flying, access to Hubble will be complicated: the Dragon capsule cannot dock directly with the space telescope, at least in its current form. NASA said there are no problems with Hubble at the moment, but even at an altitude of more than 500 kilometers, where it is now, it still interacts with the upper atmosphere: since 2009, after the last maintenance mission, its altitude has decreased. by about 30 kilometers and will continue to decrease in the future.

NASA expects the telescope to become unusable around 2037 as its orbit takes it back through the atmosphere in a disruptive manner, but by then there is a chance that various components of the telescope will wear out or fail completely, making it difficult or impossible to use. . NASA hopes to have a plan by the end of this decade to either extend the life of the space telescope or decommission it (that is, its controlled re-entry into the atmosphere).

Space X, Jared Isaacman and the Polaris Down mission

So what does SpaceX have to do with this project? It will be recalled that last year, billionaire Jared Isaacman rented a Dragon capsule and a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX and, together with three other tourists (for whom he paid for a round-trip ticket), flew into space for almost 3 days, which was the first time. private orbital mission. Jared Isaacman wasn’t satisfied with the Inspiration-4 mission in 2021, and he wants more: He wants to become the first space tourist to do an extravehicular activity, and it looks like he’ll do it next March, also aboard the Dragon capsule.

Isaacman’s missions will be called Polaris, and the first mission will be Polaris Dawn, which is scheduled to launch in March 2023, when the Dragon capsule will reach an altitude of 1,400 km (by comparison, the International Space Station is about 400 km). Finally, the Polaris missions will use the new Starship spacecraft that SpaceX is building these days at its base in Boca Chica, Texas, also in recreational flights in Earth orbit, in parallel with the preparation of lunar missions for the partnership with NASA.

Perhaps the experience of the Polaris missions (extravehicular activities aboard the Dragon capsule, high-altitude flights, even the future orbital operations of Starship) can be applied to save the Hubble Space Telescope, whether it is to replace some of the components that will fail during the several years, regardless of whether it is about putting it into a higher orbit, although these will not be as complex missions as those performed during the space shuttles.

If Hubble can rise again to a height of 600 km (where it was at the beginning of its life), then the telescope can be used for another 15-20 years (if other components do not fail). No decision has yet been made on how that mission will go, but Jared Isaacman said it’s possible a second Polaris mission could involve the Hubble Space Telescope, but not necessarily a crew aboard the Dragon capsule.

We will have to wait 6 months for the feasibility study to be completed, but the good news for NASA is that neither this study nor such a mission, if it happens, will require much government funding, the costs will be almost entirely covered by SpaceX. and Jared Isaacman.

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