"CURBSIDE?!? How the heck am I supposed to get it into the back yard?"
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Not kidding. It's 7.2 feet dia and weighs 1825 lbs.
I can't imagine it burning up/melting as it comes racing through the atmosphere.
Obviously aiming for the Pacific ocean, who knows what that mirror will do.
Burn and/or melt: possibly not.
Survive in one piece: definitely not.
I'm not sure you comprehend the aero forces involved. It's not like Hubble would disassemble itself gracefully, and there's another 12 tons of various alloy bits surrounding it. A good analogy would be putting a pair of glasses and a couple pounds of miscellaneous hardware into a gallon paint can, and running it through a mixer for a few minutes...think those lenses would survive?
I understand aero forces.
I can not imagine hooking up a refueling hose wearing gloves and a spacesuit. At least there would not be any bug nests blocking the flow.
Bill D
One big issue for ground-based telescopes is the huge number of Bright Shiny Things getting shoved into low-earth orbit by Musk and his cronies.
https://www.space.com/megaconstellat...ight-pollution
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...ope-satellites