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by mtlmtlmtlmtl 68 days ago
I often think about the shuttle program in relation to all these crazy complicated, wildly expensive, and incredibly fragile space telescopes we're sending to LEO or the Earth-Sun L2. Would be damn useful to be able to repair/upgrade these things like with Hubble.

Obviously I realise the shuttle program was pretty far away from being able to head out to the Earth-Sun L2(AB, and wasn't even working towards it. But man, it would be nice to have that ability.
2 comments
NetMageSCW 66 days ago
For JWST, for example, besides not being designed for repair, it is incredibly delicate and having a spacecraft approach would likely destroy the heat shield and break it permanently.
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nradov 68 days ago
Really? Seems like it would be cheaper to build extra telescopes (economy of scale). When one of them breaks, just launch another.
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NetMageSCW 66 days ago
You will never build enough to get to economies of scale. Building a second one costs just as much as the first one.

And, when asked, astronomers invariably choose a new different telescope over another of one they already have.

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