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Back of the envelope math would suggest that 8-10 JWTs could be launched in a single starship flight making for an impressive telescope array.
by lumost 2y ago
Back of the envelope math would suggest that 8-10 JWTs could be launched in a single starship flight making for an impressive telescope array.
- stevage 2y agoDid you factor in the fuel to get to where it needs to be?
- pfdietz 2y agoPropellant is very cheap.
- stevage 2y agoYeah but it is still mass and volume that might reduce available payload?
- TeMPOraL 2y agoDoesn't matter. The point is that, thanks to reusable boosters, launching satellite constellations, and other recent developments, space is becoming much cheaper - so if you can't fit 8 JWSTs in one Starship, just launch the rest on another, and it'll still come out cheaper than the original JWST.
- pfdietz 2y agoUltimately it becomes so cheap we'll be able to put workers up there to assemble and maintain the telescopes, just like on Earth. We might see telescopes in telescope farms near a small station for the workers. It might even be possible to send workers out to the Sun-Earth L2 point to maintain telescopes there.
- KiwiJohnno 2y agoNot really. Starship is aiming for 150 MT to LEO. The launch mass of JSWT was 6.5 MT. Yes, JSWT was launched into a L2 transfer orbit and not LEO, but from the above margins there is probably enough spare capacity for this.