Final Hubble spacewalk done and dusted

Astronauts Andrew Feustel and John Grunsfeld ealier today completed the fifth and final spacewalk of the STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel on the fifth spacewalk. Pic: NASA The mission specialists (see pic: Grunsfeld at left preparing to ride the shuttle's robotic arm) exited …

[John Whitehead]

Scientific heroes

These guys are truly heroic. They're impeccably well drilled but also resourceful when the drill fails. They're giving us more evidence that the truth about the universe is far more extraordinary than the profoundly unimaginative twaddle peddled by religion. Let's hope they get home safely.

[Anonymous Coward]

All that?

All that for 5 more years of science from a gimped telescope? Why not pack it up in the storage bay and bring it home to replace ALL of the electronics with new and redeploy it? Or put it up in the Smithsonian or hell even sell it to help pay for the cost of getting it?

- annon in case I'm being foolish.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hooray!

Go Atlantis...

Not only is it an awesome mission, but I'm just happy that they're making me look good "The battery unit was fitted in around one-and-a-half hours".

Takes me 5 seconds to change a battery... ;-)

[Anonymous Coward]

@Hooray!

ah, but try changing a battery whilst wearing boxing gloves and moving at 20 times the speed of sound (not sure how accurate that speed is... so no flames plz)

:D

[Allan Dyer]

@Hooray!

Don't forget the support team - when I change a battery, I usually can't find which type it is before pulling it out, then I have to nip down the shops for the replacement. Apparently, the support team had all that figured out beforehand.

[Albert Gonzalez]

In space nobody can hear you scream

There is no such thing as speed of sound in vacuum

:-P

[Tom Cooke]

@John Whitehead

The truth about the universe is far more extraordinary even than the remarkable things we are discovering about it through science (and I'm a hardcore science fan). Please don't call people's religious views 'profoundly unimaginative twaddle', at least until you've read some religious writers who *do* have a decent imagination. Have you read C.S. Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy? Even Stephenie Meyer would count to me as a writer with a religious background who has a far-reaching imagination.

And amen to the Shuttle crew getting home safely.

[mike]

@All that

Not foolish, it just costs shit loads to send stuff into space, cheaper to service hubble 'on-site'. Just think of the moon landings; millions spent so that astronauts could play golf on the moon and bring back moon-rock.

[Anonymous Coward]

I do love that these guys always have a pithy line ready

for all the important moments of any given mission

[Jim]

@Tom Cooke

I'm sorry Tom, but John's comment is perfectly justified with your opening line

"The truth about the universe is far more extraordinary even than the remarkable things we are discovering about it through science"

What evidence do you have to support this assertion?

Yes, that embarrasing word "Evidence"!!

How can you define truth if not through evidence? Divine revelation? Voices in your head? Someone said so?

Fail.....

Oh, and Tom, John was referring to Religion - not writers - why the skew, I wonder?

On topic, I'm hoping the ST will last much longer than 5 years, and will provide even greater insights into the Universe than we have had up to now!

[Tom Cooke]

@Jim

Hi, Jim. Missing your second point there; John referred to twaddle peddled by religion, someone has to do the peddling and I assume people writing from a religious perspective count as well as anyone for this. I referred to C S Lewis as an example of someone with a religious perspective whose writing could not (in my view, anyway) reasonably be referred to as 'unimaginative'.

As regards evidence, I'm afraid I'm going to have to refer back to a very old argument - science works because there appears to be some connection between the inferences we have in our heads and the way things turn out in our experiments. But no-one (as far as I'm aware, unless Elizabeth Anscombe's arguments are better than I thought) has scientifically explained *why* the chemical changes in our brains when we 'think' bear any relation to the fact that in the real world, 'if A then B' turns out to mean something. I think this remains a valid critique of reductionism.

Back on topic, I totally agree - we may believe we have different reasons for our awe at what the Universe contains, but we can all support the science that shows it to us.

Best regards

Tom

[Matthew]

when can they test it?

Awesome stuff, looking forward to the new images Hubble will produce.

[Jim]

@Tom Cooke

Oh come on Tom, all of the Judaic religions (and the vast majority of the others) exist in tiny, petty universes ruled over by tiny, petty personalities they call gods. The abilities of actual humans, whether agnostic, Catholic, Bhuddist, Baptist, Jain or whatever, has no bearing whatsoever on the veracity of religious scriptures and teachings.

I'm not sure what to make of the nonsense on evidence - we actually do have a pretty good idea as to how the brain interprets data from our senses, and our knowledge in this arena grows by the day. How this " remains a valid critique of reductionism" is beyond me! It just isn't!

What part of 'Causality' don't you get? A photon hits a receptor in the eye - which causes a chemical reaction, which triggers a pulse of activity in the optic nerve, which fires a cascade of neurons in the visual cortex, which... which... which... There is no reason, nor any need, to suppose any woo-woo supernatural intervention in the process of cognition.

You may not like it, for whatever reason, but the world really is just exactly what we would expect it to be, if the supernatural, gods, devils, spirits, ghosts, jinns, angels etc actually don't exist - and never have.

Ultimately, all we really know of the world has come from rational, evidential observation. The supernatural aspects of religion have contributed exactly squat to the sum of our knowledge of the world.

That's just the way it is....

Anyway, the ST has been released, and hopefully will soon be back in action! Hooray!!! :-)

[Alistair]

Bravo!

Well done you clever and brave chaps.

[sean]

Battery

Mmmm....... One hopes that the battery wasn't maid in Taiwan otherwise that 5 year life expectancy should be slightly reduced..... I'm thinking to about 5 months?

[sean]

Battery

Mmmm....... One hopes that the battery wasn't made* in Taiwan otherwise that 5 year life expectancy should be slightly reduced..... I'm thinking to about 5 months?