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takyon writes:

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.

Original Submission

1. "takyon" - https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/
2. "considering four proposed space telescopes" - https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/07/21/study-teams-comb-through-nasas-wish-list-for-a-new-telescope/
3. "Hubble Space Telescope" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope
4. "James Webb Space Telescope" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope
5. "LUVOIR" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_UV_Optical_Infrared_Surveyor
6. "High Definition Space Telescope" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Definition_Space_Telescope
7. "Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Large-Aperture_Space_Telescope
8. "Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Field_Infrared_Survey_Telescope
9. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=21396

printed from SoylentNews, NASA Considering Flagship Space Telescope Options for the 2030s on 2024-04-19 18:14:26