It sucks that this telescope is getting shut down, but it seems like it's due to issues passing a budget in congress instead of Biden wanting to slash NASAs budget voluntarily. I wonder if it...
It sucks that this telescope is getting shut down, but it seems like it's due to issues passing a budget in congress instead of Biden wanting to slash NASAs budget voluntarily.
I wonder if it would be possible for commercial space companies to launch new space telescopes. The commercial crew program and commercial lunar payload program seem to be very cost effective and successful in building commercial space capabilities. Would a group of universities teaming up to develop a new space telescope that launches on a commercial spacecraft make sense in the future?
Most of the expense in these telescopes comes from design and testing rather than the actual launch, although of course that is an expense. I wouldn't be surprised if we see it in the future, but...
Most of the expense in these telescopes comes from design and testing rather than the actual launch, although of course that is an expense. I wouldn't be surprised if we see it in the future, but I don't think the limiting factor in how many space telescopes we have is finding someone to launch them.
I looked into it and Blue Skies Space is a commercial company building space telescopes. They don't have an x-ray telescope planned, but they have a UV telescope in the works. Maybe they will...
I looked into it and Blue Skies Space is a commercial company building space telescopes. They don't have an x-ray telescope planned, but they have a UV telescope in the works. Maybe they will build an x-ray telescope in the future.
Their site says they've received some funding from EU grants but I'm sure they've gotten some from venture capitalists as well. I wonder what their revenue model is? There's nothing profitable...
Their site says they've received some funding from EU grants but I'm sure they've gotten some from venture capitalists as well. I wonder what their revenue model is? There's nothing profitable about space telescopes, in fact they're quite the opposite. You don't pay for observation time. Much of Chandra's operating budget goes towards research grants, so in a way people actually get paid to use them.
Not to mention that flagship observatories like JWST and the upcoming Roman cost billions of dollars for a single unit. Even commercial partnerships like the Artemis landers are only possible because the government is funding them. I don't think astrophysics departments generally have that kind of money to throw around, so where's it all going to come from?
I looked into it and they lower the cost to build and operate the telescopes by using off the shelf hardware. A lot of the cost of the telescopes that are operated by large space agencies is the...
I looked into it and they lower the cost to build and operate the telescopes by using off the shelf hardware. A lot of the cost of the telescopes that are operated by large space agencies is the cost to develop custom hardware. If Blue Skies Space can use off the shelf hardware, they can still get very useful data for a much lower cost.
They are actually raising funding from universities that get to preorder observation time and help design the mission. They are not as cutting edge as the government funded large telescopes, but they definitely meet the requirements of real scientists.
It sucks that this telescope is getting shut down, but it seems like it's due to issues passing a budget in congress instead of Biden wanting to slash NASAs budget voluntarily.
I wonder if it would be possible for commercial space companies to launch new space telescopes. The commercial crew program and commercial lunar payload program seem to be very cost effective and successful in building commercial space capabilities. Would a group of universities teaming up to develop a new space telescope that launches on a commercial spacecraft make sense in the future?
Most of the expense in these telescopes comes from design and testing rather than the actual launch, although of course that is an expense. I wouldn't be surprised if we see it in the future, but I don't think the limiting factor in how many space telescopes we have is finding someone to launch them.
I looked into it and Blue Skies Space is a commercial company building space telescopes. They don't have an x-ray telescope planned, but they have a UV telescope in the works. Maybe they will build an x-ray telescope in the future.
Their site says they've received some funding from EU grants but I'm sure they've gotten some from venture capitalists as well. I wonder what their revenue model is? There's nothing profitable about space telescopes, in fact they're quite the opposite. You don't pay for observation time. Much of Chandra's operating budget goes towards research grants, so in a way people actually get paid to use them.
Not to mention that flagship observatories like JWST and the upcoming Roman cost billions of dollars for a single unit. Even commercial partnerships like the Artemis landers are only possible because the government is funding them. I don't think astrophysics departments generally have that kind of money to throw around, so where's it all going to come from?
I looked into it and they lower the cost to build and operate the telescopes by using off the shelf hardware. A lot of the cost of the telescopes that are operated by large space agencies is the cost to develop custom hardware. If Blue Skies Space can use off the shelf hardware, they can still get very useful data for a much lower cost.
They are actually raising funding from universities that get to preorder observation time and help design the mission. They are not as cutting edge as the government funded large telescopes, but they definitely meet the requirements of real scientists.