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posted by martyb on Wednesday January 30 2019, @10:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the BIG-eyes-on-the-sky dept.

The James Webb Space Telescope may only last 5-10 years, and its successor (LUVOIR) may not be launched until the mid-2030s or later. Extremely large ground telescopes could fill in the gaps for astronomers:

A solution to [the] future space telescope gap may come from the ground. A new generation of what are known as extremely large telescopes, or ELTs, are under development and expected to enter service in the 2020s. With mirrors of between 25 and 40 meters in diameter, they're far larger than anything foreseen for space for decades. Even with the limitations of operating on the ground, like weather and atmospheric distortions, they have capabilities that will be unmatched for years.

[...] A problem for many astronomers, though, is that [Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)] and [Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)] are being developed not by government agencies but by consortia of universities and nonprofit organizations. Astronomers who are not part of the consortia won't be able to use them.

That's why, at the AAS meeting, there was a concerted push for what's called the U.S. ELT Program, a proposal to provide those two observatories with federal funding in exchange for open access to any American astronomer, just like NASA-operated space telescopes. A specific proposal for the program called for a combined $1 billion in National Science Foundation funding for GMT and TMT, in exchange for 25 percent of the observing time on each.

[...] The two observatories say they would be willing to give up a share of their observing time to the broader astronomical community in exchange for the financial support and stability the NSF would provide. "Their financial support will be very helpful for staying on schedule and meeting our overall plan," said Pat McCarthy, vice president of GMT. "There's a real advantage to knowing that the entire U.S. community is behind us."

[...] ELT advocates have no problem with NASA jumping on board. "We would welcome NASA investment in our giant machines," said Silva when asked at an AAS session about the space agency contributing to the U.S. ELT Program. But, he added, no one from NASA could comment on the idea. Thanks to the shutdown, no one from NASA could attend.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday January 31 2019, @02:30AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday January 31 2019, @02:30AM (#794347) Journal

    Hubble has had health scares in the last few months, but it actually has a good amount of redundant components that can be switched to. It could last into the 2020s, or even the 2030s.

    Sierra Nevada Corporation is getting money for its Dream Chaser spacecraft [soylentnews.org]. There is a tentative plan to use Dream Chaser to service Hubble [spaceflightinsider.com]. This plan will probably get more attention in the event of Dream Chaser successfully being flown to the ISS, or if Hubble experiences an unexpected failure.

    I don't think it matters if you tack on some Elon years to the BFR timeline since I don't expect anything Hubble-sized-or-better to be launched within the next few years, with the exception of JWST, which could go up in 2021 and operate until 2026-2031. I don't think we will have a gap in which BFR is not operating. It doesn't matter how many NRO frames are available, because we can see from the WFIRST [wikipedia.org] experience [soylentnews.org] that just having a donated frame does not mean we get rapid deployment of a new telescope. What we need to make things better here is a revolution in our approach to space telescopes or an increase in funding priority. BFR can be a game changer, or at least an eye opener.

    LUVOIR has been in planning for some time now, although it probably wouldn't launch until late 2030s (which shows us that something is very wrong). The 8-meter size is a compromise that would allow it to not require SLS Block 2 (although maybe the larger 15-meter version could fit into BFR, with folding).

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