BE DOPE NEWS (BDN) Plagued by continuing shuttle problems forcing them to delay much-needed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope, mission commanders are prepared to try a risky remote install of BeOS in an attempt to keep the delicate equipment stable.

With the current operating system, a bare minimum of three gyroscopes are needed to keep Hubble stable enough for accurate observations. Currently, only three gyros are operating -- making the Hubble one failure away from becoming scientifically useless.

NASA's planned mission to replace the faulty gyros has been dangerously delayed due to various shuttle problems, the latest delay pushing a possible shuttle launch window into the second week of December.

One group of NASA scientists are persuing an alternate plan - replacing the current OS with BeOS. Under BeOS, Hubble would only need one operational gyro to remain stable and conduct reliable observations.

The greatest risk to this plan is based on the radio transmission of BeOS to Hubble. If something were to disrupt the transmission, Hubble would become crippled with only a fragment of BeOS installed.

Scientists in favor of the plan cite the simplicity and speed of the BeOS installation process (a three minute install (including optional items) with a superfast CD ROM drive was recently recorded).

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