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One of the donated telescopes is being used as the basis for the Roman (neé WFIRST) telescope, launching some time around 2027. It'll also be interesting to see
by Rebelgecko 5y ago
One of the donated telescopes is being used as the basis for the Roman (neé WFIRST) telescope, launching some time around 2027. It'll also be interesting to see if using the donated hardware ends up actually saving any money.
- dylan604 5y ago> saving any money. NASA does not understand these words in this order you have put them. By "saving" you mean tripling them, twice?
- Rebelgecko 5y agoYeah, it seems like there were 2 schools of thought. One saying "let's just build cheap and compact optics that meet our minimum requirements" Another saying "we have this badass hardware available, let's use it even though it goes well beyond our original design in terms of capabilities and also size/weight/complexity"
- bradknowles 5y agoIt’s not like they haven’t done this before. Take a look at the KH-11 and tell me that doesn’t look exactly like the Hubble, just pointed the other way. In fact, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the Hubble was actually a cover for some KH-type mission, and the reason they had to go fix the optics to make it actually useful for space telescope purposes was because they had “accidentally” left the earth-viewing optics in place for the launch.
- dylan604 5y agoUm, have you run out of tinfoil? They don't need optics to read the thoughts from your brain from space man. That's the real cover. They just pay artists to create those "Hubble images" to add to the cover. /s
- otherotherchris 5y agoI like to think that the NRO has an AMAZING space telescope with the wrong set of sensors that they can’t use. Whoops.