Huble was never meant for this, if you look at all the systems present on ISS for automated docking, none of that is on Hubble. Access to modules inside Hubble was never meant for robots with very limited dexterity either. Being able to do something like that would be a huge feat of engineering in my opinion (and extremely expensive).
I am fairly certain it would be faster and cheaper to just build a new one from scratch.
And even if you managed to make a robot to service Hubble, it then would only be able to service Hubble and nothing else. JWT for example is completely different.
On the long term you are right that this is a capability we need, but this needs to be taken into consideration while building the telescope/satellite/whatever: automated docking mechanism, standard ports and dimension of parts etc. etc.
I'm pretty sure the pitch here is "a robotic being with human perception, dexterity, and manipulation, but who doesn't breathe air and never gets tired."
So the idea is that you don't need to specialize it to the thing it's meant to work on, because it works on whatever a human works on. A similar idea drove a lot of the DARPA Robotics challenge, with its emphasis on being able to drive a normalish vehicle, open a door, climb a ladder, use a regular power tool, etc.
Anyway, I think the state of the art for all this is still pretty far away, which is why the instinct is to assume we're talking about something specialized.
> I think the state of the art for all this is still pretty far away, which is why the instinct is to assume we're talking about something specialized.
Yes, that's exactly what I thought. If we are talking about AGI + human level robotic dexterity, then the use of "simply" becomes even funnier.
> Access to modules inside Hubble was never meant for robots with very limited dexterity either.
It was also never meant for humans with less limited dexterity.
I recall one of the Hubble servicing missions I watched on NASA TV, in which they had to bolt a special adapter plate over a cover, unscrew over a hundred tiny non-captive screws (which the adapter plate was designed to catch, so they wouldn't float away), and only then could they open that cover. That part of the telescope clearly wasn't designed to be serviced in space.
To be fair, they wasn't expecting Hubble to last beyond the end of the service date. I recalled it was ~10~ 15 years? They have no way of knowing this beforehand.
Edit:saw the comment somewhere that it is 15 years.
Huble was never meant for this, if you look at all the systems present on ISS for automated docking, none of that is on Hubble. Access to modules inside Hubble was never meant for robots with very limited dexterity either. Being able to do something like that would be a huge feat of engineering in my opinion (and extremely expensive).
I am fairly certain it would be faster and cheaper to just build a new one from scratch.
And even if you managed to make a robot to service Hubble, it then would only be able to service Hubble and nothing else. JWT for example is completely different.
On the long term you are right that this is a capability we need, but this needs to be taken into consideration while building the telescope/satellite/whatever: automated docking mechanism, standard ports and dimension of parts etc. etc.