Bursting The Hubble Bubble

Things at NASA are changing. Few of the current engineers working there even know what to do with a slide rule.

There will never be another generation that will not have Hubble images. The recent service and upgrades to the original telescope will give Hubble the last, best years of its life. Would that human existence could proceed that sweet way.

Smaller, more specialized instruments will be launched to do more specialized science. Check out the NASA site for a list of these planned launches and their resulting images. The huge difference is that these instruments will have fewer fingerprints on them.

There was nothing ever “photographic” about Hubble's pictures. They were always digital. At first, the telescope was a failure and then there was a grand rescue. For 20 years it has been a testament to the human ability to make things work when they should have been abandoned.

Like our little Mars “Rovers That Could”, and did more than ever imagined, Hubble has exceeded all expectations. On the return trip back from the last servicing mission, the camera that restored Hubble's faulty vision almost 20 years ago is back on earth, back in the hands of the man that created it. In about 8-20 years, the Hubble will stop working and it will burn up in an inglorious return home.

I think she would be a great attraction to place on Dix Hill. There could be a planetarium, a space study center and a memorial to all who have given their lives in the quest for knowledge about the closest space around this home planet. Maybe that retrieval would be a fitting task for the last ride of the last shuttle.

When are we sending up the big Shop Vac to clear out the huge human-made ring (not soon to rival that of Venus') that we have made of parts and pieces, gloves, nuts, bolts, piss and Tang?

The shuttle program is also ending. I never liked the idea of the buses going into space. The Apollo and Gemini systems worked so well and comparatively inexpensively, why build a Thomas bus and shoot it into imminent danger?

The Russians are still populating the International Space Station with cosmonauts packed into relatively safe ball bearings. It is a rough ride, but it is cheap and parts arrive on robot transfers and the cosmonaut transfer is efficient. They even have paying customers who want the ultimate ride and get it for about $20,000,000.

These other instruments we are lofting will be dedicated to peering deeper out into space and back into time.

Hubble has given us hints and these machines will give us more answers. The deeper we go, the further back we go.

Which brings us to the NOW.

Hubble and the images she has brought us may have distracted us from the things facing us right here. The earth is so very beautiful and fragile. As drawn as we might be to a dark or bright spot on a stellar map, do we see the glory and perfection of a face?

Sometimes we are forced by the pain that flows out of our television screens and computer monitors and we just want to look away. We need to solve the issues of water pollution and food production and distribution and just plain getting along with people.

Yep, something is wrong with us. If a specific group of people are killed and another group is dancing and singing about it, there's a problem.

That mirror into the human heart needs to reveal something basic. I have seen the result of violence and cringe at harsh words.

Little bullies like the suited, cultured Easleys or the violent, terror-striking Jihadists want to have their way.

There is a mirror of Light and Truth that can change things, but these mirrors must have fingerprints. Ours.

The Light will win. Tim http://www.timjohnsonsphoto.com/ tim@timjohnsonphoto.com