Astronauts, not robots, should fix the Hubble Space Telescope, according to the US National Research Council. But NASA has been pursuing a robotic fix, and it has opposed a manned repair mission on safety grounds, following the Columbia space shuttle disaster in February 2003.
The orbiting telescope is expected to stop functioning by the end of 2007, by which time five of its six stabilising gyroscopes are likely to have failed. If the telescope is to be repaired, astronauts could respond better than robots to unforeseen problems, the NRC argues in a report released on 8 December. Astronauts could also…
