Sunday 22 May 2011

astrophotography - Successor to the Hubble Telescope

Although the JWST is often touted as the successor to the HST, this isn't technically true, as Rob pointed out the JWST is designed to work in the infrared not optical wavelengths. One possible, more direct, successor could be the ATLAST (Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope) telescope, it would not only be able to observe in the optical but also infrared and ultraviolet. The primary mirror is planned to be between 8-16.8m in diameter and would be able to achieve up to 2'000 times better angular resolution than the Hubble can at present. It would make use of the newly developed Space Launch System (SLS) to place it into an L2 orbit (also where JWST is heading), and there are also plans to allow servicing missions to the telescope every 5-7 years (similar to how the HST was serviced in orbit) to enable astronomers to upgrade the instruments on-board.



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However this telescope still hasn't left the drawing board and is unlikely to meet its 2025 launch date, funding for such a large telescope is guaranteed to cause a delay in construction as it would probably require an international collaboration just like the HST was jointly commissioned by ESA and NASA.



See:http://www.stsci.edu/atlast for references.

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