Sir
In her Review '18 years of science with the Hubble Space Telescope' (Nature 457, 41–50, 2009), Julianne Dalcanton discusses the telescope's remarkable achievements. I am saddened at the thought that the best end for Hubble that NASA can devise is simply to burn it up.
Although the coming repair mission may be the last from NASA, it need not be the last mission to Hubble, which will still have use as a scientific instrument. Perhaps another nation might want to adopt it? As humankind progresses farther into space, a saved Hubble would be a treasured artefact.
What is necessary right now is that NASA should use this last mission to secure attachment points to Hubble so that a future, unmanned satellite could dock and raise it to a secure orbit.
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Schwartz, P. Guarding Hubble telescope's future for posterity. Nature 457, 657 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457657c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/457657c
