[X] My Assistant

[dilo]

Well, I obviously hope that Hubble will be repaired/updated and will last as much as possible.
But, sometime, we will need a replacement.
The James Webb telescope will mainly work in the mid-infrared region so I would like to have also something working in the visible and UV wavelenghts in order to guarantee a continuity (in the near IR, the fast Adaptive Optics progress will soon permit to have space-like performances from Earth).
Consider also that recent Earth-observing satellites are equipped with true telescopes, with very interesting performances; see Ikonos images of Mars during opposition:
http://www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/mars/default.htm

So my "crazy" idea is to make a telescope smaller than Hubble (let say 1.2m diameter) but equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and, especially, with heliosyncronous orbit at 800Km height.
The great advantage will be that, while orbiting above illuminated Earth side, this telescope can be used for remote sensing with a stunning resolution close to 30cm/pixel (like MRO!) while in the night side will take astronomical images and spectra.
Such compact telescope should have a moderate cost and, anyway, it's commercial use could cover the initial investment!

[Jeff7]

I seem to recall hearing somewhere that it'd be cheaper to build a new Hubble and launch it with a conventional rocket rather than paying for servicing and a shuttle launch.
The design process for Hubble is done already, so building another one from existing blueprints would be fairly cheap to do. That, and it could be launched with the various enhancements that have already gone into the orbiting one - no need for complicated space-based upgrades.

[dilo]

Jeff7, probably you're talking of the Hubble Origins Probe (HOP), a 2.4m orbital telescope proposed by an international team led by Johns Hopkins University astronomers.
Idea is good, even though a half size instrument would probably cost less, considering also launch cost... but for sure also less performing!

If we have to make a "Hubble2", I have another idea to improve it:
an extendible sunshield, easy to implement and very useful especially for studing internal planets and comets at perihelion (now hard or impossible to see with Hubble). On a wide field telescope this would allow to discover also many NEO object having most of their orbit inside Earth one. Look to these rough draws:

2nd solution is more efficient but require precise pointing respect to the sun (more risk!)

[dilo]

Who is interested can read my preliminary assessment on such idea:
 SET.doc ( 129.5K ) Number of downloads: 1171

Suggestions and critics are welcome!