Orbital servicing missions - not dead yet?

[ngc3314]

Especially after Dave Leckrone's brutally honest comments during one of the STS-125 daily press updates, the loss of capability of servicing missions has been much discussed. The HST project folks have even started talking about one more robotic HST servicing mission now that the grapple fixture has been attached. And now this was just sent around by NASA, indicating that these ideas just may become more than pipe dreams:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is soliciting information through this Request for Information (RFI) to improve its understanding of using the capabilities of its Constellation System, adaptations of the Constellation System architectures, and/or robotic technologies to service a wide range of notional science observatory-class spacecraft. The NASA-defined notional missions studied will be consistent with NASA’s current portfolio of future space science missions and/or conceptual mission ideas that were presented to the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Committee on Science Opportunities Enabled by NASA’s Constellation System during the spring of 2008. These notional missions include observatories designed to operate in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), at Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), and at Earth-Sun Lagrangian points L1 and L2.

[slang]

Ooooh L2!

Evil minds may wonder what kind of defect has been discovered which may have a greater than expected failure rate

[ngc3314]

Ooooh L2!

Evil minds may wonder what kind of defect has been discovered which may have a greater than expected failure rate

Or looking on the brighter side, note that JWST would run out of station-keeping fuel after about 11 years, and a life extension would be worth thinking about sooner rather than later. It is still possible to put a grapple fixture on it.