James Webb Space Telescope, information, updates and discussion |
James Webb Space Telescope, information, updates and discussion |
Aug 23 2005, 02:01 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 134 Joined: 13-March 05 Member No.: 191 |
The manufacture of the JWST mirror blanks has now been completed.
Despite this milestone, the fate of JWST is still somewhat precarious, because although the scientific bang from the telescope is expected to be huge, the bucks required have increased to a staggering $4.5 billion. A Space.com article on the squeeze in NASA's space-based astronomy plans gives some background. The JWST home page can be found here. The Space Telescope Science Institute, which runs Hubble, also has a site here. As does ESA. |
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Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Mar 8 2006, 08:56 PM
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I moved this from a thread I started to this one. Thanks to ljk4-1 for pointing it out to me.
I apologize if there is already a thread on JWST; I didn't take the time to look (very hard). However, if there isn't, I'll kick-start it by pointing out Tony Reichhardt's excellent news article in the March 9, 2006, issue of Nature: US astronomy: Is the next big thing too big? Tony Reichhardt Nature 440, 140-143 (2006). doi:10.1038/440140a Full Text Excerpt: QUOTE So no one is denying that the JWST will be a first-rate telescope, perhaps even a revolutionary one. Just last August an independent assessment team charged by the project to review the telescope's science potential reported that "the scientific case for the JWST mission has become even stronger" since the Decadal Survey's endorsement in 2000. But what of its expense? NASA's latest budget puts the project's price tag, including $1 billion for a decade's worth of operations, at $4.5 billion. That's more than the entire annual research and development budget of the National Science Foundation; it represents more than $1 million for each full member of the American Astronomical Society. Nature also has an editorial ("Refocusing NASA's vision") on the subject in the same issue. Following is an excerpt: QUOTE It is now clear that when NASA first requested funds for a Next Generation Space Telescope a decade ago, the project's advertised price of under $1 billion was little more than a fiction. But it was a fiction that the space agency, the Congress and many in the astronomy community wanted to believe. And, of course, there's the recent NASAWatch/Spaceref article "JWST Talking Points." |
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