wyatt@cfa.HARVARD.EDU (Bill Wyatt) (01/30/90)
>> 2) I'm curious about the upcoming Hubble Space Telescope mission. >> I would assume that it is due to be placed in a geosynchronous orbit. > Nope. The astronomers would probably prefer it, but HST is going to be in > low Earth orbit like most other major science missions. The reason is > economic: a low orbit maximizes payload with a given launcher. HST is > just too big for the boost up to Clarke (geostationary) orbit. Yes, given a launch & *recovery* capability, we'd like geosynch orbit, but recovery for new instrumentation is an important feature. Yes, we'd like a higher orbit because of the problems of drag, but not necessarily too high because of radiation damage to the solar panels. Unfortunately, the max altitude possible is barely acceptable, assuming the current solar maximum behaves as now expected. BTW, the figure I heard for the HST storage at Lockheed was $7 million per month. Bill Wyatt, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA, USA) UUCP : {husc6,cmcl2,mit-eddie}!harvard!cfa!wyatt Internet: wyatt@cfa.harvard.edu SPAN: cfa::wyatt BITNET: wyatt@cfa