It's also doing things like swapping out reaction wheels and dying hardware of various kinds.
And as soon as you're doing that, you're probably using humans. And then because the cost is already so big, you might as well replace some instruments, too...
I definitely did that once or twice, just send a small craft with some RCS thrusters and reaction wheels then attach it to spacecraft via The Claw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#/media/...
Once they’re no longer needed the cost of repair drops by 100x.
Musk’s android seems like a bit of a gimmick but hopefully he stirs up enough imagination in people that we get a few breakthroughs in robotics.
Then we can explore the entire solar system…build bases on Mars and the moons of Jupiter, etc without sending humans
—Scott Crossfield, US test pilot <https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/albert-scott-crossfield/>
The game of Go wasn’t close to being won by a computer until DeepMind came along.
https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/9/11185030/google-deepmind-a...
The robots could pick sort 70% effectively while the population of humans after years of training was stuck at 50%. I imagine the efficiency of the robots may even have increased a bit since then.
Another crucial detail: producers of platic packaging engage is deliberate fraud to conflate recycleable and non recycleable plastic. Plastics that say 'commonly recycled' may be unrecycleable anywhere except a leading technology lab.
Another detail: massive fraud in recycling industry:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/18/uk-recyc...
Most european countries stil do separate recycling, and have much higher recycling rates than UK or US, which have mixed recycling.
The big point here is that this boosting and potentially servicing mission isn't being pitched by NASA. It's a SpaceX proposal connected to their entirely private program to develop EVA capability for Dragon and to eventually test Starship's ability to support crews in space. Thus for NASA it would likely be cheaper than if they were asking for it.
So the reason we likely won't see a robotic servicing of Hubble (from this) is that it doesn't have as much relevance to SpaceX's goals with Polaris Dawn as just docking, orbit raising and maybe crewed servicing does.
But if you can't get dishwasher manufacturers to produce repairable dishwashers, then it's all for naught - we have failed as am industry.
Amd if you can get manufacturers to produce repairable dishwashers, then probably those dishwashers can be repaired by random joe opening a repairshop.
And its not clear why we need a robot.
Thats why our industry is a joke, we were promised robots will deliver our food, but instead robots micromanage indentured servants.
I think it's unlikely the current reaction wheel system lasts to that ~2032 timeframe, let alone significantly beyond.
Of 6 wheels, 2 are working well, 1 is dodgy, and 3 have failed. 3 are required to keep orientation.