Nasa unveils Hubble's successor

[photon]

Most excellent!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6645179.stm

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is intended to replace the ageing Hubble telescope.
It will be larger than its predecessor, sit farther from Earth and have a giant mirror to enable it to see more.
Officials said the JWST - named after a former Nasa administrator - was on course for launch in June 2013.

[photon]

Hm, the diagram shows they'll place at at the L2 Lagrange point, which isn't stable. I wonder if they'll put it in orbit around the L2 point, I think I read about that somewhere.

[Phanuthier]

The JWST was actually planned back in the early 90's and annouced in that time frame too. In 1995 there was a big change in the budget for the project when it was sent to a 3rd party Northrop Gruuman to fabricate. One of the lead optical engineers, Dr Philip Stahl, actually just gave a talk on it at the UofA.

http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/d...ID_event=10354

The JWST should be interesting in making or breaking alot of cosmology and and other physics theories, and probably even some religious beliefs.

[Azure]

Wow.

I can't wait. The Hubble pictures have been mind boggling. I can only imagine what this new telescope will see.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

The JWST was actually planned back in the early 90's and annouced in that time frame too. In 1995 there was a big change in the budget for the project when it was sent to a 3rd party Northrop Gruuman to fabricate. One of the lead optical engineers, Dr Philip Stahl, actually just gave a talk on it at the UofA.

http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/d...ID_event=10354

The JWST should be interesting in making or breaking alot of cosmology and and other physics theories, and probably even some religious beliefs.

Oh yeah, I remember reading about potential replacements. That'd have been an awesome talk to go to, thanks for the link!

[4X4]

Cool. Can't wait to see what this scope will show us.

Anyone know how far out the Hubble is?

[photon]

Hubble's in earth orbit, about 600km up I believe.

[photon]

[BlackArcher101]

Looks more complicated, and considering the existing one breaks all the time, this is probably a bad thing. Also, it's in the open and more susceptible to damage. Is there space debris at that altitude?

[photon]

Since the L2 point isn't stable, it doesn't collect debris like L3 and L4 do, so it's no more at risk (and probably less risk) than the Hubble to space debris.

Good point about servicing it though! It's not like we can just send a shuttle out there, shuttles can only get to low earth orbit. I guess if something needs to be done we'll have to create a robot that can do it. Which would be good experience long term for the space industry. Maybe that's one of the reasons it's so much more expensive.