re hst servicing mission scheduled for days in article c bdgm r zoo toronto edu henry zoo toronto edu henry spencer writes in article rrgu lp access digex net prb access digex net pat writes no the thing is designed to be retrievable in a pinch indeed this dictated a rather odd design for the solar arrays since they had to be retractable as well as extendable why not design the solar arrays to be detachable if the shuttle is going to retunr the hst what bother are some arrays they can be detached in an emergency but expensive hardware is not thrown away casually bearing in mind that nobody knew the design was defective if the deployment crew had found some nasty flaw the lid failing to open for example it would have been a bit embarrassing to have to throw the solar arrays away to get the thing back in the payload bay i guess it s kind of an aesthetics argument i can see the solar arrays being expensive and there could be contingencies where you would be throwing away brand new solar cells but it seems so cheap compared toa shuttle mission i wouldn t think they would bother pat
