HubbleIR

[shopper@xxxxxxxx]

Hi, this is for general IR interest.

Last night the local photographic society presented a talk by the 
NASA Program Manager for the Hubble Space Telescope.He is the 
care taker, not the astronomer, and the one who supervised the 
repairs to make it work.  Among items mentioned was the Near IR 
instrument on Hubble which is now inoperative due to lack of 
coolant.  NASA plans to replace the cooling system--frozen 
nitrogen, within two years and resume IR scanning.  For me at 
least the big surprise was the replacement for Hubble itself.  NASA 
hopes to keep this unit  working until 2010 and then replace it with 
an IR instrument which will be placed about two Lunar orbits out 
from Earth  to avoid light pollution and the remnants of atmosphere! 
 
Apparently there are no plans to replace the Hubble with a 
telescope which operates in the visual range.  Mr. Aldridge said 
there was consideration "at some time" of a replacement with two 
telescopes operating about 1,000 miles apart for a binocular effect 
which would lead to an array for planetary searches, beyond 2030.

Jim Wood
*
****
*******
******************************************************
*  To remove yourself from this list, send:          *
*         UNSUBSCRIBE INFRARED                       *
*       to                                           *
*         MAJORDOMO@xxxxx                            *
*----------------------------------------------------*
*   For the IR-FAQ, IR-Gallery and heaps of links:   *
*  http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/mainpage.htm  *
******************************************************