When Hubble is finally obsolete and no longer useful..

When Hubble has hit the end of its life, in 10 or so years ( hopefully, after the new upgrade), will NASA just allow it to float around forever, or set it on a controlled decent so as to burn up in the atmosphere?

What are your thoughts on it burning up? I know its just a piece of technology, which by then will be obsolete, do you think it should be brought home for people to admire and cherish as one of the greatest pieces of technology to expand our knowledge of the universe?

Personally, I would like if it was brought back as a monument to the human quest for knowledge and understand, although I am a sentimental person and realise that I may be attaching a bit too much emotion to a hunk of metal floating around space.

Yep its set for a fiery re-entry.

As for a recovery mission, I'd rather see the money spent on something useful. Like getting JWST up there on time.

Also remember after 2010 Nasa won't have a shuttle.

yes, was just thinking about that. its a real step backwards to go from having a veichle that can transport heavy loads two and from orbit, to having no such veichle at all. This is something that will have to be addressed before too long. I know the shuttle was too complicated and this is why the wanted to simplify, but i think they should have struggled for some sort of middle ground. perhaps an unmanned veichle that could bring objects back from orbit if need be. although im unsure of the demand for such a veichle.

The logical part of me that wants answers and the furthering of our knowledge of space agrees with you Dave, but Hubble is so familiar now its personified in my mind, so much so that I can amlost see a smiley face when i look at it( if i squint hard enough!!) Guess Il just have to get over that. I still find it a shame.

Its roughly 10 years away yet, so il hope against hope for some fantastic developments in space travel that will allow us to bring hubble home with ease!

Yep Fintan, it would be nice to be able to visit Hubble in some museum after its service life is over. According to this article on BBC today hubble could function up to the end of the next decade if the service mission goes well. So maybe then they might be able to think about retreiving it.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7164139.stm

Hey if NASA dont want Hubble anymore i'll take it off their hands. Rather then let it burn up.....i'll email them and offer them €50 for it.

Just let it burn. I wouldn't mind if they let it burn up now to be honest. There are other projects that could do with the funding rather than pouring money into a tool that isn't really providing much new research. The number of papers published citing Hubble has been decreasing for the past few years, and advances in adaptive optics etc. have meant that ground based observatories can produce just as good and better images for some applications.

Still I suppose NASA wants to say it has something working up there until the James Webb gets up and Running.