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Straight ahead on "Our World" ... NASA gives a 'go' for a Hubble repair mission ... a warning on dwindling fish stocks ... and days before Americans head for the polls, concern about electronic voting
RUBIN: "In particular, the way that they used cryptography was using outdated ciphers. And in some places where they needed to use cryptography, it wasn't used at all."
Those stories, a local push for energy alternatives, and more. I'm Art Chimes. Welcome to VOA's science and technology magazine, "Our World."
The astronomy community breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday when NASA announced that it would send a space shuttle to the Hubble Space Telescope to do repairs and maintenance that will extend the life of the 16-year-old orbiting observatory.
Speaking to reporters, senior Hubble scientist David Leckrone said the servicing mission will leave Hubble in better shape than ever.
LECKRONE: "Hubble will literally be at the apex of its abilities. For one thing will we have on board, we hope, six fully-functioning scientific instruments for the first time since 1993. And it takes a whole toolbag full of instruments to provide the varous tools needed to attack all kinds of astronomical problems, and that's the way Hubble has worked, and that is one thing that's made it so successful: its versatility."
NASA had wavered on a Hubble repair because, in the event of an emergency, the shuttle crew would have been unable to reach the safe haven of the International Space Station. NASA has been particularly cautious since the 2003 accident that destroyed the shuttle Columbia. When the shuttles returned to flight in mid-2005, the focus was on finishing construction of the space station, and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said safety considerations dictated against a Hubble repair mission.
GRIFFIN: "There was a great concern about the ability to fly astronauts to destinations other than the [space] station. There were just a huge amount of unknowns. And so in that period, given the circumstances at the time, NASA made the very troubling, very troubled, and very unpopular decision to cancel the Hubble servicing mission."
For a time, NASA considered sending a robotic craft to fix the space telescope, but in the end that was considered too complex and uncertain.
Now, with three additional shuttle flights safely completed after the Columbia accident, NASA experts have concluded that a Hubble repair mission can be done with an acceptable degree of risk. As an additional safety feature, Griffin said a second shuttle will be sitting on the launch pad, ready to go in case a rescue mission is needed.
The decision was welcomed by astronomers, many of whom have described Hubble as the most productive telescope of any kind, ever. At "Astronomy" magazine, senior editor Michael Bakich said the repairs and upgrades should extend Hubble's life until the next great orbiting observatory is launched.
BACKICH: "Had they not, had they had to bring Hubble down within a year or two, there would have been a gap there, when no large telescope in space, focusing specifically on the types of things that Hubble is studying, would be up there. The next great space telescope to be launched is the James Webb space telescope, and the earliest that it's going to be launched is 2011. So I'm really glad that they're going to service Hubble and that it will continue, I think, for many years to come."
At a press conference on Tuesday, NASA introduced the seven member crew that will fly on the Hubble repair mission, led by commander, Scott Altman.
ALTMAN: "The discoveries we don't know about yet, the observations we haven't taken. And hopefully we can extend its reach for an additional period of time."
Scott Altman's crew is set to blast off to fix the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2008 at the earliest.
A new study shows that the oceans' fish are being depleted so fast that eating seafood might be just a memory in 40 years. The researchers say more is at stake than our diet, for they find the dwindling of fish stocks hurts the world economically and the ocean environmentally. But as VOA's David McAlary reports, the researchers say it is not too late to reverse the trend.
McALARY: A team of North American and European marine biologists and economists reports that our taste for fish has caused some ocean species to disappear since the 1800s, a trend that has accelerated in recent years.