God dammit... I worked in space policy back in the early 2010s and spent wayyyy too much time interviewing people about the findings of the ICRP...
God dammit... I worked in space policy back in the early 2010s and spent wayyyy too much time interviewing people about the findings of the ICRP (https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/499224main_JWST-ICRP_Report-FINAL.pdf) back in the day. Nothing has changed, it seems. At least I was able to see some of those reallllly pretty golden mirrors in the lab up at Goddard one time.
The Aerospace Corporation recently put out a paper looking into the types of high-volume production that are slowly being embraced by space organizations. I'm really hopeful that those methods and...
The Aerospace Corporation recently put out a paper looking into the types of high-volume production that are slowly being embraced by space organizations.
I'm really hopeful that those methods and cheaper launch capabilities will get us to a point where our space telescopes aren't massive one-off projects built on billion dollar budgets and multi-decade timelines. It's so sad to see awesome things like JWST slip further and further behind while Hubble slowly heads towards death and other aging telescopes are shut down.
I'm almost certain that billion dollar ground telescopes will continue to be built, but I also anticipate that a transition towards high-volume satellite manufacturing and the continual lowering...
I'm almost certain that billion dollar ground telescopes will continue to be built, but I also anticipate that a transition towards high-volume satellite manufacturing and the continual lowering of cost per kg to orbit will result in more, cheaper space telescopes being built.
NASA already has a couple of operational or planned small telescopes (see the MIDEX chunk of the Explorers program), so I think it's reasonable to anticipate them looking into some kind of multi-telescope series as industry moves towards high volume production by building more constellations and less one-off spacecraft.
God dammit... I worked in space policy back in the early 2010s and spent wayyyy too much time interviewing people about the findings of the ICRP (https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/499224main_JWST-ICRP_Report-FINAL.pdf) back in the day. Nothing has changed, it seems. At least I was able to see some of those reallllly pretty golden mirrors in the lab up at Goddard one time.
The Aerospace Corporation recently put out a paper looking into the types of high-volume production that are slowly being embraced by space organizations.
I'm really hopeful that those methods and cheaper launch capabilities will get us to a point where our space telescopes aren't massive one-off projects built on billion dollar budgets and multi-decade timelines. It's so sad to see awesome things like JWST slip further and further behind while Hubble slowly heads towards death and other aging telescopes are shut down.
I wonder if anything will ever change the nature of space telescope projects. We're happily building billion dollar telescopes on Earth after all.
I'm almost certain that billion dollar ground telescopes will continue to be built, but I also anticipate that a transition towards high-volume satellite manufacturing and the continual lowering of cost per kg to orbit will result in more, cheaper space telescopes being built.
NASA already has a couple of operational or planned small telescopes (see the MIDEX chunk of the Explorers program), so I think it's reasonable to anticipate them looking into some kind of multi-telescope series as industry moves towards high volume production by building more constellations and less one-off spacecraft.