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by aargh_aargh
1644 days ago
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The reason we can't achieve the same resolution as JWST with interferometry has been mentioned in a recent startalk podcast. The distance between the telescopes would have to be coordinated to a precision somewhere on the order of nanometers. |
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That'll happen. It's fundamentally a timing problem, and we can already build clocks that will tell you what floor of the building they're on.
Less hand-wavingly, it's fundamentally a data-acquisition and correlation problem of the sort that was solved long ago for microwave VLBI. Back in the day, the individual stations had their own maser clocks, but now I imagine they're all GNSS-based. It is by no means trivial to go from RF interferometry to optical, or to move the antenna elements from earth to space, but that's the basic approach that will ultimately be used.