Why is Webb not serviceable like Hubble?
Hubble is in low-Earth orbit, located approximately 600 kilometers away from the Earth, and is therefore readily accessible for servicing using the Space Shuttle. Webb will be operated at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, located approximately 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth, and will therefore be beyond the reach of any manned vehicle currently being planned for the next decade. In the early days of the Webb project, studies were conducted to evaluate the benefits, practicality and cost of servicing Webb either by human space flight, by robotic missions, or by some combination such as retrieval to low-Earth orbit. Those studies concluded that the potential benefits of servicing do not offset the increases in mission complexity, mass and cost that would be required to make Webb serviceable, or to conduct the servicing mission itself. • The gyroscopes used for pointing Hubble sometimes fail and need to be replaced via shuttle missions. Since Webb won’t be serviceable, how
Hubble is in low-Earth orbit, located approximately 600 kilometers away from the Earth, and is therefore readily accessible for servicing using the Space Shuttle. Webb will be operated at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, located approximately 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth, and will therefore be beyond the reach of any manned vehicle currently being planned for the next decade. In the early days of the Webb project, studies were conducted to evaluate the benefits, practicality and cost of servicing Webb either by human space flight, by robotic missions, or by some combination such as retrieval to low-Earth orbit. Those studies concluded that the potential benefits of servicing do not offset the increases in mission complexity, mass and cost that would be required to make Webb serviceable, or to conduct the servicing mission itself. • The gyroscopes used for pointing Hubble sometimes fail and need to be replaced via shuttle missions. Since Webb won’t be serviceable, how
