Last week felt more like finals week for astronomy professor Megan Donahue as she raced to submit a Hubble Space Telescope research proposal by Friday night.

Unlike past years, Donahue and many of her colleagues are fearing this might be their last chance to conduct research with the help of the 14-year-old star-spotter.

Earlier this month, NASA officials decided to terminate future servicing missions to Hubble, signaling the demise of the prized machine that revolutionized astronomy by allowing scientists to explore the far reaches of the universe without distortion from the atmosphere.

The announcement coincides with a directive by President Bush to shift the space program's focus to visiting the Moon and reaching Mars. As a result, the telescope - originally scheduled for retirement in 2010 - is expected to deteriorate by 2007, if not sooner.

That time frame means this year's round of research projects, submitted to NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, could be the last before Hubble begins to falter.

Any number of systems could fail on Hubble, Donahue said. The batteries could lose power, a small meteor could damage equipment, or the gyros - which point the telescope to specific heavenly bodies - could cease to work.

The Hubble has advantages over Earth-based telescopes - it collects ultraviolet data and provides clearer images.

"Using a telescope on Earth is a bit like looking at a tree from the bottom of a swimming pool," Donahue said.

Ray Villard, a spokesman for the Space Telescope Science Institute, said scientists are comparing the premature end of Hubble to "shooting a thoroughbred before he's ready for the Triple Crown."

"If anything interesting is happening in the universe, you want to look at it with Hubble," Villard said. "Without future servicing missions, there are wonderful discoveries that simply aren't going to be made for some time to come."

In the short term, the institute is expecting an influx of research proposals as scientists realize the urgency to make the most of Hubble's final years. Even before the announcement, the telescope had been overbooked in recent years.

"We will see even more proposals and competition to try and squeeze out as much high-quality science as we can," Villard said. "Once Hubble is gone, the whole community is going to miss it."

Last week, some members of Congress asked NASA to reconsider its decision, pointing to Hubble's numerous scientific breakthroughs.

But on Friday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president wants to focus NASA's resources on "clear missions and on programs that produce meaningful results."

Hubble's replacement, James Webb Space Telescope, is scheduled for launch in 2011. Astronomy Professor Jack Baldwin said he is skeptical that NASA will meet that date and fears scientists will be without an optical space telescope for at least five years.

News of the pending loss of Hubble comes just months before MSU scientists start projects at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope in Chile. The university is one of four partners building that instrument.

Baldwin, a leader on the SOAR project, said the university intended to couple Hubble research with SOAR projects. Now they will focus on using SOAR's 4.2-meter lens - nearly twice as large as Hubble's - to capture some of the clearest images available from Earth.

"Hubble, in the end, takes sharper images," Baldwin said. "But SOAR overlaps into that level."

With MSU astronomers guaranteed time on SOAR, Baldwin said it could give the university a competitive advantage against institutions scrambling for time on Hubble.

"We will have a bit more of a scientific edge - it is a silver lining in the cloud of losing Hubble."

The loss of Hubble will likely mean a loss of funding from NASA. Hubble has brought in $445,000 in grants to MSU during the past seven years for 14 different scientific investigations, according to the telescope institute. Five different MSU scientists served as principal investigators of those projects.

Stephen Zepf, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, is the lead investigator for a current MSU project that uses Hubble to determine when and how galaxies form.

"The news is disappointing, but it is still working right now, and we are still getting data and have ongoing programs," said Zepf, who has been the principal investigator on six projects.

Because of the unpredictable nature of space exploration, Zepf said scientists understand that "the next experiment you do could be the last with that particular instrument."

Zepf, though, is not ready to give up hope that the future of Hubble could be extended through policy changes.

"Since the telescope is still working, its death sentence isn't a sure thing until it actually happens," he said. "At Michigan State, we've taken its advantages as well, so we'd like to see it continue to its full life and not see it terminated."

Steve Eder can be reached at ederstev@msu.edu.

Eric Morath can be reached at morather@msu.edu.