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posted by CoolHand on Monday July 24 2017, @06:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the primo-glass dept.

NASA is considering four proposed space telescopes and will likely launch one of them in the 2030s as a flagship mission, like the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope:

  • Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR), a multipurpose follow-up mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope with a 8-16 meter (26-52 foot) primary mirror that would make discoveries on exoplanets, dark matter, star formation, the earliest galaxies of the universe, and within our own solar system.
  • Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx), a smaller telescope than LUVOIR with a 4-8 meter (13-26 foot) primary mirror and instruments sensitive to ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light to find worlds outside our solar system that could harbor life. HabEx could fly with a coronagraph, a component inside the telescope to mask starlight and reveal faint reflections from planets, or a starshade, a separate vehicle flying in formation with the telescope to blot out starlight.
  • Origins Space Telescope, a far-infrared surveyor with a primary mirror up to 9 meters (30 feet) in diameter that would be a successor to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory. The Origins Space Telescope will investigate how galaxies, stars and planets form, search for water and greenhouse gases on exoplanets, and study interstellar dust.
  • The Lynx X-ray telescope, following in the footsteps of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton mission, will study the dawn of the first black holes, and the epoch of reionization, when the first galaxies and light sources emerged after the Big Bang.

The LUVOIR space telescope would be the closest to a successor of Hubble, covering a similar range of wavelengths. It is also similar in size to two recent proposals: the High Definition Space Telescope (HDST) and the Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST).

The JWST was not designed to be serviceable and will likely only last for 5-10 years after its planned launch in October 2018. It has a 6.5 meter primary mirror. Hubble has been operating since 1990 but only has a 2.4 meter primary mirror.

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope will launch in the 2020s.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by leftover on Tuesday July 25 2017, @12:11AM (2 children)

    by leftover (2448) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @12:11AM (#543948)

    There are some interesting and involved discussions in reply to your question but none of them provide the 'real' answer. Which is: to our great misfortune, Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex was ignored. War became ultrabig business and it continues because it is insanely profitable to a very few individuals. Those individuals have used these profits to purchase and maintain control of the political apparatus. Wishes and votes of the people are simply unimportant to them.

    Every person I discuss this with, regardless of their current political persuasion, is all in favor of drastically reducing military spending and tending to the problems we are facing. Nobody in control cares what we think.

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  • (Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Tuesday July 25 2017, @12:16AM

    by Absolutely.Geek (5328) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @12:16AM (#543951)

    Every person I discuss this with, regardless of their current political persuasion, is all in favor of drastically reducing military spending and tending to the problems we are facing. Nobody in control cares what we think.

    it is sad that the will of the people is ignored; it is ignored here also, maybe to a lesser extent but still ignored.

    --
    Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
  • (Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Tuesday July 25 2017, @01:11AM

    by Absolutely.Geek (5328) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @01:11AM (#543962)

    Maybe that could be the next soylent poll; "US military budget spend" answers:
    Dem - increase
    Dem - decrease
    Dem - same level
    Rep - increase
    Rep - decrease
    Rep - same level
    Ind / Non-US - increase
    Ind / Non-US - decrease
    Ind / Non-US - same level

    --
    Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.