I got to thinking about this, if they started selling time on the Hubble or similar space telescope, where you could point it in any direction you wanted (other than at the sun or other object that would damage it), would you be interested? If so, what would you want to look at and how much would you be willing to pay for an hour’s time?
Can the thing stream video? Cause I’d love to point it right back down at Earth to watch it rotate beneath…
It would make one hell of a webcam.
I don’t know if the Hubble can, but I’d think that it wouldn’t be too hard to fix it so it could.
“I’d buy that for a dollar!”
That’s a tough one. It would be difficult to think of something cool to look at that Hubble hasn’t already seen.
Yeah, I know, but I was thinking about the fact that they can point the thing in one direction and allow it to gather light for extended periods of times, which isn’t always done. Plus, I was thinking about the fact that it’s probably pretty hard for the average joe to get permission to look at something. Additionally, I’d think it’d be way cool to log into a website, submit your credit card number, then point and click where you wanted Hubble to look, and watch it happen live.
Nice Roboco reference.
I don’t think its going to be able to focus on something that close IIRC.
They’ve already done the Ultra Deep Field, which is about 3 months worth of exposures. Any other part of the sky would look pretty much the same.
I’m not familiar with Hubble itself, but astronomical satellites aren’t usually controlled in real time. They only communite with ground stations a few times a day, during which time the next day’s operating schedule is uploaded and data is downloaded. There are also strict restrictions on which part of the sky you can point it at at any given time - the solar panel must remain pointed at the sun, while the telescope itself cannot point anywhere near the sun, etc. The raw output image isn’t very pretty either - it takes a lot of processing to generate the type of image you see on APOD.
It’s hard to imagine the public would be willing to pay enough to operate the spacecraft. A major satellite like that would need several full-time operators to monitor the status and plan the operations, not to mention maintenance and operation of ground stations. I’ve been on the operating team of a relatively small astronomical satellite, and it took about 6 people working full time to run the thing: 4 scientists and 1 technitian to plan operations and monitor the satellite, and 6 people to run an antenna station that also served several other satellites. Every command sent to the spacecraft had to be reviewed and re-reviewed because an incorrect sequence of commands can disable the spacecraft, possibly permanently.
Anyway, I am a researcher (ostensibly) so I may pay for time on the Hubble - but only if I had a research grant to pay for it. And only the government would give me that kind of money. So it’ll still be the taxpayer’s money supporting the Hubble, and nothing would change.
I think I would, to photograph places the USS Enterprise has been 
There’s a celebration of the Hubble Telescope in Belfast this month. A representative from the Armagh Observatory who will help run it also took a night class in astronomy and invited our class along to take snaps of space from an observatory in Hawaii. I’m very interested in this and will be going along to see if I can find anything from the Trek universe to snap 
Another project he hopes to look into is a view of your own house from a satellite in orbit (although this being Northern Ireland, security looms its ugly head :smack: )
So yeah, I might be interested in buying time on the Hubble, but it would be a matter of price and not a matter of wondering if there’s anything worth photographing.
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For the 15th anniversary of HST, they’re going to release two gigantic high resolution pictures with unveilings at science centers around the US on April 25. One of the pictures is M51, and the size of the print is 4x6 feet. Can’t tell you what the other picture is (but I’ve seen a thumbnail images of both and they’re beautiful.)
Here’s a list of the sites unveiling the two images across the US. We’re all supposed to keep the pictures on display for at least several months after the unveiling, if you can’t make the April 25 event.
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Possibly. I’m not an astronomer, and from what little I know about Hubble I can assume that you pretty much have to be an astronomer to get any useful data from it. However, if I had a cute girlfriend who was the head of a team studying quasars or something, I’d buy some time for them as a gift.
True, if the terms were based on telling a techy guy or gal where to point and click with the Hubble I would, if pointing it myself maybe not.
Well, it’s official, NASA has decided to sentence Hubble to death by re-entry.
I’d hate to see the liabilty insurance premium.