Yes - there is a great opportunity for a new type / class of astronomy based in space. That should be the focus going forward. If all these astronomers can do i

Yes - there is a great opportunity for a new type / class of astronomy based in space. That should be the focus going forward. If all these astronomers can do is (usually incorrectly) say that land based astronomy can no longer happen - zero out their funding. Seriously - look into some of the port barrel type endless projects going on - TMT for example. It's ridiculous. Look at ultraviolet, infrared, X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy - the idea that you are going to be doing high quality work on these on land is also silly - huge opportunities are in space for this. For all the talk of satellites obscuring the view - you ALREADY need tons of processing / active adaptions to handle a much much bigger impact - atmospheric distortion! Seriously - the stars "twinkle" because of this. This an entire sky effect. The reality is the land based interests are all the tenured folks at big universities and really depend on these long streams of funding - so I recognize almost no chance. But if there are young astronomers on HN - look to space positively to see what might be possible there! You'll find the forward thinkers may already be there! For those interested in the challenges and opportunities - large fleet observations unobstructed by atmo. For large diameters (also still valuable) cracking some robotic build out (or even astronout build out options) would be great because a ton of complexity is in the unfolding mechanisms for planned large space telescopes. Anything that let you get a high volume of segments up and then assemble those in space would open up the door to HUGE telescopes. The future is going to be much more SpaceX style than SLS style (the next telescopes are planned for SLS - literally pork on pork - should be amazing results but the costs are eye watering).