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We could have another dozen Hubble clones in orbit and they'd still be booked solid for years. It's just such a fantastic piece of kit, decades later. I see the
by jagger27 4y ago
We could have another dozen Hubble clones in orbit and they'd still be booked solid for years. It's just such a fantastic piece of kit, decades later. I see the value in servicing it, but I'd be even happier to see a few Falcon Heavy launches with modern versions of Hubble. In my opinion it's the least SpaceX could do for the brutal damage to the night sky Starlink has done.
- thinkcontext 4y agoHas anyone ballparked what a modern Hubble would cost to build?
- CommieBobDole 4y agoThe National Reconnaissance Office gave NASA a couple of unused KH-11s back in 2012, which is what Hubble is based on in the first place. They're using one of them for WFIRST, which is apparently expected to cost ~$4 billion, but that's the whole project cost including 5 years of operations.
- thinkcontext 4y agoThanks. I see its also going to be in L2, that must raise costs considerably.
- Maursault 4y ago> We could have another dozen Hubble clones in orbit We probably do already, they're just pointed in the wrong direction and unavailable for scheduling.
- coolspot 4y agoThey are available for scheduling, just not to astronomers.