Quote:
Originally Posted by Daradon
Re: Webb Telescope
Scares me when he says that there is only one chance to get it right when put into 'orbit'. As mentioned in the video, we know the Hubble telescope had to be fixed a few times (1 major one that I can think of). We also know of goof ups and bad luck on several of the Mars landers and probes.
It would be awful to see it become useless, and probably set back the space and research programs even more, with all the people who didn't want to see money spent on it saying 'I told you so.'
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That is a bit worrying, but since that's a design constraint to begin with you can at least plan for that, whereas the Hubble they knew they'd be able to go back.
Most of the stuff with the Hubble has been extending and expanding it, other than the initial repair to account for the incorrectly ground primary mirror, I think all the other missions have been to put better instruments in place, or repair things that had failed but the failure was a reasonable one (i.e. was operating beyond what was planned for).
But yeah, if it didn't open as planned and just became a piece of junk, that'd be a kick in the pants.