It’s definitely more money, and I don’t know very much about this stuff, but having a space based system would avoid a lot of issues like light pollution, atmospheric distortions, etc., no? Of course this isn’t needed for amateur or lower level stuff, but surely for scientific studies that’s a pretty big deal. Space junk is really pretty irrelevant since that concerns low earth orbits, while being at a Lagrange point is preferable for telescopes anyway (like Webb).
With ever more people and satellites on/around the earth, I just don’t see the problems with ground based imaging getting any better over the long term.
Despite the articles clickbait, light pollution isn’t a threat to astronomy. We build telescopes far from the city, usually on mountains. Modern techniques using lasers and active mirrors resolve atmospheric distortions.
The best telescopes go into space, it’s the best environment. We do not need to put the telescopes We currently put on earth into space, it would only create the problems I outlined above.
It’s definitely more money, and I don’t know very much about this stuff, but having a space based system would avoid a lot of issues like light pollution, atmospheric distortions, etc., no? Of course this isn’t needed for amateur or lower level stuff, but surely for scientific studies that’s a pretty big deal. Space junk is really pretty irrelevant since that concerns low earth orbits, while being at a Lagrange point is preferable for telescopes anyway (like Webb).
With ever more people and satellites on/around the earth, I just don’t see the problems with ground based imaging getting any better over the long term.
Despite the articles clickbait, light pollution isn’t a threat to astronomy. We build telescopes far from the city, usually on mountains. Modern techniques using lasers and active mirrors resolve atmospheric distortions.
The best telescopes go into space, it’s the best environment. We do not need to put the telescopes We currently put on earth into space, it would only create the problems I outlined above.