Think you can save the Hubble Space Telescope? NASA wants to know.

本文为原文前 6,000 字符的节选翻译，完整内容请查看原文。

The Hubble Space Telescope still shines in the eyes of astronomers after 36 years in orbit, but it is not as nimble as it once was. Left alone, the observatory will plunge back into the atmosphere in the early-to-mid-2030s, closing the book on one of the most famous scientific instruments of the century.

哈勃空间望远镜在轨道上运行36年后，在天文学家眼中依然闪耀，但它已不如从前那般灵活。如果任其自然，该天文台将在2030年代中期坠入大气层，为本世纪最著名的科学仪器之一画上句号。

NASA last raised the orbit of Hubble in 2002, when the Space Shuttle Columbia visited the observatory for a servicing mission. The final shuttle servicing flight in 2009 did not reboost the telescope’s orbit, and with the retirement of the shuttle fleet two years later, Hubble has steadily lost altitude with no way to stave off eventual destruction.

美国国家航空航天局（NASA）上一次提升哈勃轨道是在2002年，当时哥伦比亚号航天飞机访问了该天文台进行维修任务。2009年的最后一次航天飞机维修飞行并未提升望远镜的轨道，随着两年后航天飞机机队的退役，哈勃的高度一直在稳步下降，且无法阻止最终的损毁。

The space agency released a Request For Information (RFI) on Thursday asking commercial companies for ideas on how to reboost, service, or a controlled disposal of Hubble. Responses are due November 30. Specifically, NASA is looking for information about companies’ current and near-term capabilities for capturing Hubble and boosting it to an altitude of at least 373 miles (600 km), enhancing the telescope’s performance through, or guiding Hubble to a controlled reentry.

该航天机构周四发布了一份信息征询书（RFI），向商业公司征集关于如何提升哈勃轨道、进行维修或对其进行受控处置的方案。回复截止日期为11月30日。具体而言，NASA正在寻找有关公司当前及近期能力的信息，以捕获哈勃并将其提升至至少373英里（600公里）的高度，通过维修提升望远镜性能，或引导哈勃进行受控再入。

“The requirement includes that the boost and/or servicing mission must not harm the HST and that this mission is expected to occur by 2032,” NASA wrote in the RFI. The contractor would be responsible for providing the launch vehicle, servicing spacecraft, mission operations, and “crew if applicable.”

“要求包括提升和/或维修任务不得损害哈勃空间望远镜（HST），且该任务预计在2032年前完成，”NASA在RFI中写道。承包商将负责提供运载火箭、维修航天器、任务操作以及“适用时的机组人员”。

No commitments yet NASA is not committing to buying a Hubble rescue mission, but officials want to know who might be interested in mounting such a mission, how much it would cost, and which companies would have a realistic shot at reaching Hubble before it falls out of orbit and burns up on reentry.

尚未做出承诺。NASA目前并未承诺购买哈勃救援任务，但官员们希望了解谁可能有兴趣开展此类任务、成本是多少，以及哪些公司有切实的机会在哈勃坠出轨道并在再入时烧毁之前抵达该望远镜。

Orbital dynamicists currently predict that it will likely happen in 2033 or 2034 without intervention, but reentry forecasts can change based on solar activity. It took 24 years for Hubble, which lacks onboard propulsion, to glide from its 2002 altitude of 362 miles (583 km) to its current orbit some 292 miles (470 km) above Earth. A reboost to NASA’s requirement of 373 miles (600 km) would likely keep Hubble in orbit for at least 25 more years.

轨道动力学家目前预测，若无干预，这种情况很可能在2033年或2034年发生，但再入预测会根据太阳活动而变化。哈勃缺乏机载推进系统，从2002年362英里（583公里）的高度滑落至目前距离地球约292英里（470公里）的轨道，耗时24年。若能提升至NASA要求的373英里（600公里），哈勃很可能还能在轨道上运行至少25年。

You’ll be forgiven if you’ve heard this before. Jared Isaacman, a billionaire commercial astronaut, approached NASA in 2022 about a servicing mission to Hubble with a team of astronauts on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. He proposed funding most of the mission, which would have reboosted Hubble by at least 30 miles (50 km). Engineers also studied using Dragon to attach a rescue pod onto Hubble with new gyroscopes to overcome problems with the telescope’s debilitated pointing system.

如果你以前听说过这些，那也不足为奇。亿万富翁商业宇航员贾里德·艾萨克曼（Jared Isaacman）曾在2022年联系NASA，提议利用SpaceX的龙飞船搭载宇航员团队对哈勃进行维修。他提议资助大部分任务，这将使哈勃轨道提升至少30英里（50公里）。工程师们还研究了利用龙飞船将带有新陀螺仪的救援舱安装到哈勃上，以克服望远镜指向系统衰弱的问题。

NASA also released an RFI in 2022 for other teams to share how they might boost Hubble’s orbit. The agency received eight responses, including a joint robotic reboost proposal from Astroscale and Momentus to pair their satellite servicing technology and in-space transport capabilities. Agency officials announced in 2024 they would pursue a reboost mission after reviewing the responses. Mark Clampin, the head of NASA’s astrophysics division at the time, said the servicing plans from Isaacman and SpaceX “were really just notional concepts.”

NASA还在2022年发布了一份RFI，供其他团队分享他们如何提升哈勃轨道。该机构收到了八份回复，其中包括Astroscale和Momentus联合提出的机器人提升方案，旨在结合其卫星维修技术和太空运输能力。在审查回复后，该机构官员于2024年宣布将寻求执行提升任务。时任NASA天体物理学部负责人的马克·克兰平（Mark Clampin）表示，艾萨克曼和SpaceX的维修计划“实际上只是概念性的”。

Fast forward to 2026. Isaacman is now NASA administrator, and the satellite servicing industry is maturing. Northrop Grumman launched the world’s most sophisticated robotic servicing satellite earlier this year in a partnership with DARPA, the Pentagon’s research and development agency. Smaller startups like Astroscale and Starfish Space have contracts for servicing and refueling demos with the US Space Force and NASA. So it’s not unrealistic to think the commercial industry could reboost and service Hubble by 2032, given enough time and resources.

时间快进到2026年。艾萨克曼现已担任NASA局长，卫星维修行业也日趋成熟。诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司今年早些时候与五角大楼研发机构DARPA合作，发射了世界上最先进的机器人维修卫星。像Astroscale和Starfish Space这样的小型初创公司已与美国太空军和NASA签订了维修和加油演示合同。因此，考虑到有足够的时间和资源，认为商业行业能在2032年前提升并维修哈勃并非不切实际。

That was one of the lessons learned from NASA’s last-minute bid to rescue one of its smaller space telescopes, named Swift, from an impending reentry. NASA awarded a $30 million contract to a startup named Katalyst Space Technologies last year and gave the company just nine months to develop a mission to fly up to Swift, grab onto it, and propel it to a higher orbit, extending its useful lifetime.

这是NASA在最后一刻试图拯救其较小的空间望远镜“雨燕”（Swift）免于即将再入时所吸取的教训之一。去年，NASA向一家名为Katalyst Space Technologies的初创公司授予了一份3000万美元的合同，并仅给该公司九个月的时间来开发一项任务，以飞往“雨燕”、捕获它并将其推进到更高的轨道，从而延长其使用寿命。

Remarkably, Katalyst built a rescue satellite and launched it by the deadline, and got within about 6 miles (10 km) of Swift. Ground teams decided not to move closer after problems with Katalyst’s power and reaction control systems. The Swift rescue attempt showed a servicing mission doesn’t have to cost billions of dollars, as one of NASA’s now-canceled servicing demo projects was predicted to cost.

令人瞩目的是，Katalyst在截止日期前制造并发射了一颗救援卫星，并抵达了距离“雨燕”约6英里（10公里）的地方。由于Katalyst的电源和反应控制系统出现问题，地面团队决定不再靠近。“雨燕”的救援尝试表明，维修任务并不一定需要耗资数十亿美元，而NASA此前取消的一个维修演示项目曾预计需要如此高昂的成本。

But Hubble is a significantly more expensive asset than Swift, so if NASA goes forward with a rescue mission, the agency would like to give a contractor more than $30 million and nine months. NASA does currently not have any funding allocated to procuring a Hubble reboost or servicing mission.

但哈勃是一项比“雨燕”昂贵得多的资产，因此如果NASA推进救援任务，该机构希望给承包商提供超过3000万美元的资金和超过九个月的时间。NASA目前尚未拨付任何资金用于采购哈勃的提升或维修任务。

“Hubble still has important science ahead of it, and we should be looking at every reasonable opportunity to keep it delivering for as long as possible,” Isaacman said in a NASA statement. “If there are innovative and cost-effective ways to extend the life of an asset already on orbit, we owe it to the American taxpayer and the scientific community to explore them. Extending Hubble’s life would mean more discoveries, more science, and more opportunities to expand our understanding of the Universe.”

“哈勃未来仍有重要的科学任务，我们应该寻找每一个合理的机会，让它尽可能长久地发挥作用，”艾萨克曼在NASA的一份声明中表示。“如果有创新且经济高效的方法来延长轨道上资产的寿命，我们有责任为美国纳税人和科学界去探索它们。延长哈勃的寿命意味着更多的发现、更多的科学成果，以及更多扩展我们对宇宙理解的机会。”

A crewed servicing mission like the one Isaacman envisioned in 2022 is unlikely to happen now. SpaceX aims to retire its Crew Dragon fleet by 2030. In a post on X, Isaacman wrote that he expects the new RFI will “draw interest from robotics companies.” NASA’s newer flagship observatories, sometimes described as successors to Hubble, are not actually one-for-one replacements. Hubble is tuned to observe the Universe in visible and ultraviolet light, while the Webb and Roman telescop

像艾萨克曼在2022年设想的那种载人维修任务现在不太可能发生。SpaceX计划在2030年前让其载人龙飞船机队退役。艾萨克曼在X上发帖称，他预计新的RFI将“吸引机器人公司的兴趣”。NASA较新的旗舰天文台有时被描述为哈勃的继任者，但实际上并非一对一的替代品。哈勃旨在观测可见光和紫外光下的宇宙，而韦伯和罗曼望远镜……