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NASA is soliciting ideas on how to use the two Cold War era telescopes given to the space agency by the military.

NASA is soliciting ideas on how to use the two Cold War era telescopes given to the space agency by the military.

Both telescopes are comparable in size to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • Steve mac

    Perhaps they could focus on Washington D.C and determine if there is intelligent life there.

  • Maybe they can trade them for whatever NERVA plans and hardware are still around.

  • Pzatchok

    Make them a huge pair of binoculars. Seriously.

    Offer them up as a combined project for astronomy students to work on, then install them on the space station.
    They can ask for material donations from companies around the world and then ask for donations to offset the launch cost.

    Their combined collecting ability should be pretty good.
    And since it will be attached to the station changing out sensor packages, as better ones are offered, should be pretty easy if designed right.
    Well at least easier than if it was free floating.

  • Actually, there are serious technical reasons why a space telescope should not be installed on ISS. The vibrations from the astronauts moving around as well as the minor gas releases from the station itself would make observations difficult if not impossible. This fact was realized many years ago by astronomers while designing the Hubble Space Telescope.

    Moreover, putting the telescope on the station would not really be that much easier, and in fact in some ways would be harder. You’d still have to get new instruments into orbit. You’d have to rendezvous and dock with ISS. And you’d still need a spacewalk to install the new instruments, as the telescopes would be quite large and not inside the station. You’d also have the same precise pointing requirements, with the additional requirement of somehow pointing the telescope independent of the orientation of ISS.

    Turning the two telescopes into binoculars however is a great idea. See for example the Large Binocular Telescope, already in operation.

  • Pzatchok

    I figured the vibrations would have been a problem then, but thought possibly, with todays digital technology, something like frame stabilization would fix it.

    But either way keeping them on the ground is not a good idea.

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