Cerro Armazones Telescope to be 40m (130 ft) across

[PB666]

Have you ever observed the Sun in RADIO wavelength ? That's a real thing I tell you. IMHO we don't really need any visual telescope in space - lucky imaging can make images from Keck sharper than Hubble's, large delicate mirrors are easier to built and install and correct on ground, and interferometry helps avoiding bad weather. But Earth's atmosphere (and biosphere - anthrosphere ? What do we call human activites, sociosphere ?) is not good for any other wavelength, except some low-utility radio gap. Having any other kind of telescope outside Earth's atmosphere is a major advantage, from radio to UV and even X-ray or γ-ray. Radio suffers from ionospheric absorption and comm device interference. Microwave and IR suffer from water vapour absorption. UV suffers from ozone absorption. X-ray and γ ray, you know these thing really hate it's own existence.

EDIT : And FYI, JWST is going to be fully in IR. The only visual wavelength it can see is red.

True, but we have no replacement for hubble and the wide mirror scope is really best used for planet hunting in our galactic proximity, direct resolution. JWST is really designed for looking at extreme redshifted, thats why it needs on if its detectors to operate at 7k or so.

InMy opinion, for example when in try to KSP a scope, make it full spectrum. GRB are an important hunting and orienting tool. Xrays have the problem with hydrogen and extreme gamma, well, thats how we all came to be.

[YNM]

JWST is operating in (mainly) NIR (with mid-IR, even red visual) while Hubble goes in Visible (approx. 400-700 nm) with addition of UV and NIR. JWST exceeds Hubble not only due to it's size, but also the fact that NIR part of the spectrum is in interest of cold stars searchers (red and brown dwarf), rock searchers (asteroids, KBO or even Oort Cloud object), young star searchers (they mostly cloaks themself in dust, which is transparent in NIR), and high-redshift objects.

Taking a full spectrum - that's what everyone wants ! But physics makes it that you can't see things in radio with a visual telescope, or visual in X-ray telescope - the mirror's different. Then economy kicks in...

[PB666]

No problem, but gamma is detected in a lomg skinny tube with a PMT so that can go right on top of the secodary mirror, radio telescopes can mount between the three part wide spread mirrors, i with Radio, 1 with IR, problem solved ;^)