Carl Sagan Space Telescope

[Gargamel]

Tentative announcement of a planned Hubble/JWST successor.    20m mirror, observes in the optical spectrum.   It’s main goal is direct imaging of exoplanets.   
 

 

[StrandedonEarth]

20m, so, $20B? Hopefully they can use some lessons learned from Webb to speed it up and keep costs down…

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

56 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

20m, so, $20B? Hopefully they can use some lessons learned from Webb to speed it up and keep costs down…

Presuming SS gets working... they have heavy lift available they don't / won't have to wait for...

So - maybe, possibly, it could be on time?

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[Gargamel]

2 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

20m, so, $20B? Hopefully they can use some lessons learned from Webb to speed it up and keep costs down…

That was one of the topics she talked about in the video, how the talent and knowledge is already in the work force to make this type of telescope, and since the majority of it won't be inventing the wheel again, the costs and production issues should be kept to a "minimum".

 

[Nuke]

do optical scopes require the same cryogenic requirements as the webb?

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

6 minutes ago, Nuke said:

do optical scopes require the same cryogenic requirements as the webb?

I would not think so.

Cryocooler Webb/NASA

Hubble has one too - but it's to allow the NICMOS to see IR.

THE NICMOS COOLING SYSTEM—5 YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL ON-ORBIT OPERATION (scitation.org)

...

Edit: so maybe, depending upon feature creep.  For pure optical, I doubt it.

Edited November 22, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[Minmus Taster]

13 hours ago, Nuke said:

do optical scopes require the same cryogenic requirements as the webb?

Infrared requires more cooling, a telescope like Carl Sagan would need a larger shield but not as many layers.

[UmbralRaptor]

Considering that the decadal survey shot down LUVOIR for cost reasons and ended up recommending something intermediate in size between HabEx and LUVOIR for the 2040s, I have doubts.

[kerbiloid]

A saganscope should be able to find and observe the planets with nuclear winter, so it should have rather sensitive IR channel.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

11 hours ago, UmbralRaptor said:

Considering that the decadal survey shot down LUVOIR for cost reasons and ended up recommending something intermediate in size between HabEx and LUVOIR for the 2040s, I have doubts.

Decadal survey came out before the JWST launch, didn't it? 

 

Fans and hype (and success) change priorities.  The non-science-nerd excitement over Webb images does not run as deep as Hubble managed to back in the day... But there are a lot of people who otherwise never think about space sharing Webb images. 

If you want to push for funding for the next great observatory, now is the time 

[RCgothic]

I'll believe Carl Sagan is happening when they fully fund it. Given they didn't even do LUVIOR properly, I remain skeptical.