[BurningFrog]

Why don't we just build 5 Hubble copies and send them up? Should be much cheaper now.

Is the answer is that NASA doesn't know how to build them anymore? Or that it's not politically feasible?

[kitd]

Why don't we just build 5 Hubble copies and send them up? Should be much cheaper now.

"Just" is being extensively overused in this thread.

[chtitux]

If all of them suffer from the same issue (let's say memory corruption), you end up with 5 satellites that will fail on the same timeline.

When operating multiple devices to improve reliability, diversity is one point.

[modeless]

NASA doesn't know how to do anything cheaply. They have two space telescopes sitting in a warehouse since 2011 that were donated by the NRO. They're estimating $4 billion to launch and run just one of them, more than a decade after the donation. And you know it'll cost double the estimate and take an extra 5 years.

[2Gkashmiri]

Why dont they just give others to do their work? Last I remember india sent a probe to Mars for less than amount it took for making the movie Mars featuring Matt Damon ?

[modeless]

For the politicians that fund NASA, spending money is the whole point. They call it "job creation".

[2Gkashmiri]

agreed but what job creation is a project sitting dead for 5 years? are they giving people salary for not doing anything and then claiming too much costs or something else?