Posts: 2896 From: Titusville, FL USA Registered: Feb 2005
posted 12-21-2009 10:37 AM
A lot of great choices but this one was mine: STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission.
Tim
Delta7 Member
Posts: 1505 From: Bluffton IN USA Registered: Oct 2007
posted 12-21-2009 11:08 AM
I wrestled with choosing between the Hubble mission and finding water on the Moon. Ultimately I voted for the latter; it has implications that we'll only begin to appreciate as time goes on in my opinion.
MCroft04 Member
Posts: 1634 From: Smithfield, Me, USA Registered: Mar 2005
posted 12-21-2009 12:38 PM
Water on the moon, hands down.
GoesTo11 Member
Posts: 1309 From: Denver, CO Registered: Jun 2004
posted 12-21-2009 12:45 PM
quote:Originally posted by Delta7: I wrestled with choosing between the Hubble mission and finding water on the Moon. Ultimately I voted for the latter; it has implications that we'll only begin to appreciate as time goes on in my opinion.
That may be, eventually, but right now at the close of this decade HST is humankind's most consequential single scientific instrument since Galileo's first telescope. Its mission, including the Shuttle operations dedicated to its maintenance and upgrading, has literally transformed our understanding of the known universe. I believe that when their cost is measured against their contribution to human knowledge, the Hubble Space Telescope and Voyager 2 represent the two biggest bargains in the history of exploration. In retrospect, it's simply insane to me that STS-125/SM-4 almost never flew.
moorouge Member
Posts: 2454 From: U.K. Registered: Jul 2009
posted 12-21-2009 01:05 PM
NASA's greatest achievement of 2009 - it has to be the same one as it has been since the agency's formation. The huge benefits filtering down into everyday life here on Earth that come from research at the leading edge of technology have saved lives, saved money and improved the quality of life for countless thousands who have little or no knowledge of where these benefits originate.
My vote - NASA - we're in your house
GACspaceguy Member
Posts: 2474 From: Guyton, GA Registered: Jan 2006
posted 12-21-2009 01:39 PM
As I am a creature from a water based planet I choose Water on the Moon.
Ken Havekotte Member
Posts: 2912 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
posted 12-21-2009 02:10 PM
I'll agree with all the choices (especially water on the moon and other milestone astronomical findings), but feel NASA's developmental flight test launch of Ares I-X in Oct. should had been included as well.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42981 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 12-21-2009 02:15 PM
Ken, Ares I-X was sort of hidden among the choices: "Experimental Rocket Offers Options for Future Space Vehicles"
James Brown Member
Posts: 1287 From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA Registered: Jun 2000
posted 12-21-2009 02:50 PM
The STS-125 Mission, followed closely by the Ares I-X test flight.
tegwilym Member
Posts: 2331 From: Sturgeon Bay, WI Registered: Jan 2000
posted 12-21-2009 03:08 PM
Hubble repair.
Why? I think this has the biggest influence on the public - and we know that 90% of the public is clueless about space exploration. Since the Hubble images are published so widely when they come out, it would have bigger influence on more people who see the "pretty pictures".
Sure, water on the moon was a big deal, but then again, the public was angered over the lack of a huge "Bruce Willis explosion" when LCROSS hit. We did get the data we wanted, but the public wasn't amused at all. (I was pleased though!)
Tom
GoesTo11 Member
Posts: 1309 From: Denver, CO Registered: Jun 2004
posted 12-21-2009 03:38 PM
Tom, good point; I should have added that to my post. Since NASA is a publicly-funded agency, public perception cannot be discounted. Tell Joe Sixpack there's water on the moon, and he'll likely say, "So what?" But many citizens with no direct interest in the space program understood at a very basic level that Hubble is a truly important enterprise. NASA's decision to fly SM-4 was in no small part the product of a grass-roots campaign spurred by people everywhere who understand that the agency's mission is to explore, and Hubble's "pretty pictures" fire the imaginations of the public at large the way dry reports of ice deposits at the lunar poles never could.
gliderpilotuk Member
Posts: 3398 From: London, UK Registered: Feb 2002
posted 12-21-2009 04:11 PM
Cassini? Messenger? Spirit and Opportunity? MRO?
Surely the astounding accomplishments of these missions and their impact on the public's imagination deserve mention?
I would have thought that the impact on the public at large was a major criteria for NASA judging its accomplishments.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42981 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 12-21-2009 04:16 PM
quote:Originally posted by gliderpilotuk: Cassini? Messenger? Spirit and Opportunity? MRO?
While they all continue to operate, I think these missions would look out of a place on a list of accomplishments for (specifically) 2009...
mjanovec Member
Posts: 3811 From: Midwest, USA Registered: Jul 2005
posted 12-21-2009 04:32 PM
For me, the Hubble repair mission is the greatest accomplishment of the year. Water on the moon is a significant discovery, no doubt. But every year that Hubble operates, the number of discoveries that telescope makes will dwarf the single discovery of water on the moon. Hubble quite literally re-writes our astronomy textbooks every few years. STS-125 not only lengthened the life of Hubble, but it significantly "beefed" up it's capability to make all new discoveries...perhaps even re-writing earlier discoveries it made early in it's lifetime.
If significant quantities of water are eventually discovered on the moon...and can be put to good use for future expeditions to the lunar surface (or future colonies)...then that discovery will have more meaning than it currently does.
moorouge Member
Posts: 2454 From: U.K. Registered: Jul 2009
posted 12-21-2009 04:32 PM
quote:Originally posted by gliderpilotuk: I would have thought that the impact on the public at large was a major criteria for NASA judging its accomplishments.
Well said. That's why it has to be 'We're in your house'. The public at large may 'Oh' and 'Ah' at pictures from Hubble but this a fleeting moment. The impact of 'spin-offs' affects them in a much more permanent manner even though they may not realise it.
Joel Katzowitz Member
Posts: 808 From: Marietta GA USA Registered: Dec 1999
posted 12-21-2009 06:50 PM
I gotta go with the Ares I-X launch. I got chills watching it leave the pad and head into the future.
ilbasso Member
Posts: 1522 From: Greensboro, NC USA Registered: Feb 2006
posted 12-21-2009 06:57 PM
Seeing Neil Armstrong's footprints from lunar orbit!
chet Member
Posts: 1506 From: Beverly Hills, Calif. Registered: Nov 2000
posted 12-21-2009 09:51 PM
I vote for the discovery/confirmation of (significant amounts of) water on the moon. The implications of this are huge for future lunar exploration/settlement, and what can be discovered about the universe from a lunar base has the potential of dwarfing what Hubble has been able to shed light on so far.
Water on the moon, IMHO, should be considered for biggest story of the year in ANY category, let alone space.
cspg Member
Posts: 6210 From: Geneva, Switzerland Registered: May 2006
posted 12-22-2009 12:03 AM
I'll go with Hubble.
I still don't understand the big deal about the minimal amount of water on the Moon, dixit NASA.
Philip Member
Posts: 5952 From: Brussels, Belgium Registered: Jan 2001
posted 12-22-2009 06:36 AM
Keeping Hubble operational has been the main purpose of spaceflight during the last two decades!
issman1 Member
Posts: 1042 From: UK Registered: Apr 2005
posted 12-22-2009 11:15 AM
It really ought to be the shuttle mission which restored Hubble. Had it failed, the public and political fallout would have been catastrophic. Water on the Moon seems newsworthy enough. But until they actually, physically find it (and unambiguously) I feel STS-125 was NASA's biggest accomplishment of '09.
chet Member
Posts: 1506 From: Beverly Hills, Calif. Registered: Nov 2000
posted 12-22-2009 12:31 PM
This news article at Science.com from November, 2009 doesn't sound very ambiguous (Excerpts):
It's official: There's water ice on the moon, and lots of it. When melted, the water could potentially be used to drink or to extract hydrogen for rocket fuel.
The findings confirm suspicions announced previously, and in a big way.
"Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit, we found a significant amount," Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator from NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
Bottom line, the discovery completely changes scientists' view of the moon, Wargo said.
The discovery gives "a much bigger, potentially complicated picture for water on the moon" than what was thought even just a few months ago, he said. "This is not your father's moon; this is not a dead planetary body."
Lunar rock nut Member
Posts: 911 From: Oklahoma city, Oklahoma U.S.A. Registered: Feb 2007
posted 12-22-2009 02:44 PM
Ares I-X flight!
Jay Chladek Member
Posts: 2272 From: Bellevue, NE, USA Registered: Aug 2007
posted 12-23-2009 03:31 AM
I'll have to say Ares I-X as well. Hubble's repair was all well and good, but I think that is the accomplishment of the decade rather then just the year. As for the water, evidence suggested it, we just finally had a chance to test it. But to get to the moon and exploit the finding means we have to get off the planet first and Ares I is a step in that direction. Hence I think Ares I-X was more important given that NASA's near term future was riding pretty heavily on it.
cspg Member
Posts: 6210 From: Geneva, Switzerland Registered: May 2006
posted 12-23-2009 03:42 AM
quote:Originally posted by Jay Chladek: Hence I think Ares I-X was more important given that NASA's near term future was riding pretty heavily on it.
Was? Past tense? So what kind of accomplishment is Ares I-X if there's no Ares I at all? I would understand the Arex I-X pick if we were sure that Ares I program will continue...
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3118 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 12-23-2009 06:36 AM
At the risk of belittling a very substantial achievement (the LCROSS findings) I should point out that samples of water were returned from the Moon by the crews of Apollo 15 and Apollo 17. Admittedly the quantities were minute (locked inside green and orange volcanic glass spheres) and the finding was only made in 2008, but water is water.
issman1 Member
Posts: 1042 From: UK Registered: Apr 2005
posted 12-23-2009 11:00 AM
I don't think I was "belittling" LCROSS at all. But didn't Clementine and Lunar Prospector already infer there is apparent water on the Moon in the 1990s. Had Obama or any world leader with clout announced a plan to extract that frozen H2O for a human base, it would mean something. Until then (and we are talking decades here), STS-125 was NASA's number#1 success story this year.
NavySpaceFan Member
Posts: 655 From: Norfolk, VA Registered: May 2007
posted 12-23-2009 11:04 AM
I also voted for STS-125/SM-4. I feel that the big story re: LCROSS will be what we do with the information.
chet Member
Posts: 1506 From: Beverly Hills, Calif. Registered: Nov 2000
posted 12-23-2009 02:07 PM
Everyone's entitled to their own opinion of course, and OPINION means there are no right or wrong answers, but it should be noted that before the LCROSS findings the only knowledge of moon water involved trace amounts only. There's a huge difference between trace amounts and the finding that there are vast amounts of H2O on the moon, enough potentially to support habitability without having to transport all supplies from Earth.
Lunar rock nut Member
Posts: 911 From: Oklahoma city, Oklahoma U.S.A. Registered: Feb 2007
posted 12-24-2009 05:45 AM
Hubble never ceases to fascinate and will continue to do so until the James Webb telescope launches. Water on the moon is neat but recently water seems to be everywhere in space especially in ice form. The moon is also loaded with many minerals some of you may remember when Galileo turned its instruments toward the moon during it's gravitational assist flyby large amounts of titanium and other minerals surprised everyone. After watching the development of how to get back there to exploit those resources and following Robert's reporting and all of the pictures of the stacking and how that test flight came together, I voted for the successful flight of Ares. Very impressive.
posted 12-21-2009 09:53 AM
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