The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland has announced a new initiative to look at utilizing the deep space-gawking Hubble Space Telescope for close-in Moon duty.

Lunar observations making use of Hubble would support the NASA Vision for Space Exploration - the space agency’s agenda that includes replanting astronauts on the Moon.

Hubble operations are already being planned to support the mission objectives of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), the NASA craft that will look for water ice on the Moon, if it’s there in the first place. LCROSS is slated for launch in 2008, traveling to the Moon as a co-manifested payload aboard the booster for the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

Hubble’s use for lunar looking would be bolstered by a space shuttle makeover mission, now on the books for August of next year. That servicing would not only install new instruments on the orbiting eye on the universe, but also return the telescope to a three-gyro observing mode that enables lunar observations.

White papers on using Hubble for Moon gazing are being solicited from the scientific community. The deadline for those papers is January 31, 2008.

Take your own observation run at the request for ideas by going to:

http://www.stsci.edu/institute/org/spd/HST-Lunar-Science