[ExI] The Thirty Meter Telescope is now officially dead

[William Flynn Wallace]

What do I know?  Hah.  But wouldn't it be far more simple to put a
telescope in orbit around the Moon?
bill w

On Sun, Dec 22, 2019 at 5:22 PM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 22, 2019 at 2:51 AM John Clark via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> Synthetic aperture is not going to help you when it comes to equalling
>> the light gathering power of the thirty meter telescope,
>>
>
> I never said it would be the same.  I said I could get a 30 meter diameter
> synthetic aperture telescope up for far less.
>
> Now, if you want almost the same telescope - how much do you think it
> would take to get enough robotic (possibly teleoperated) mining, refining,
> and manufacturing capability on the Moon to be able to start constructing
> lunar observatories?  Again, though, the money wouldn't be spent entirely
> or almost entirely on Hawaii, which kills the idea of repurposing this
> specific budget.
>
>
>> Another problem with a space based system is that all those precise
>> optical surfaces are going to have to be flying in orbits far far more
>> precise than anything ever flown before, so you can't put them in low earth
>> orbit due to atmospheric drag.
>>
>
> What would happen if you did put it in low Earth orbit?  Would you get a
> better signal than from a hypothetical observatory that doesn't exist in
> the first place?
>
> BTW, this is "orbit" singular, the mass of satellites being docked to one
> another to form one large structure.
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