Oh, Hubble, Can This Really Be the End?

The spectacular collision between two satellites on Feb. 10 could make the shuttle mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope too risky to attempt.Before the collision, space junk problems had already upped the Hubble mission's risk of a "catastrophic impact" beyond NASA's usual limits, Nature's Geoff Brumfiel reported today, and now the problem will be worse.Mark Matney, an orbital debris specialist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas told the publication that even before the collision, the risk of an impact was 1 in 185, which was "uncomfortably close to unacceptable levels" and the satellite collision "is only going to add on to that." (Madrigal, 2009)

There was a project to put an automated satelite in orbit that would use a kevlar net to collect space junk, then basically tie wrap it shut, and a small rocket would drop it to a very rapidly failing orbit, so that the junk would burn up, but no one would fund the project.

Madrigal, Alexis (2009,2,18). Oh, Hubble, Can This Really Be the End?. Retrieved February 20, 2009, from wired.com Web site: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/gonehubblegone.html