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342 points divbzero | 9 comments | | HN request time: 2.756s | source | bottom
1. BitwiseFool ◴[] No.44400670[source]
The JWST is a marvel of engineering. It is also a machine designed around the restrictions of what the most powerful rockets of the 1990's were capable of. Just imagine how capable future telescopes will be now that we have multiple super-heavy launch vehicles with cavernous payload fairings in development.
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2. dylan604 ◴[] No.44400760[source]
it's hard to commit to building JWST type of payload around a non-yet proven launcher. you'd want to wait until the "in development" becomes proven before planning to launch some decadal planned mission.
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3. lawlessone ◴[] No.44401243[source]
Ariane 5 seems pretty proven to me :D
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4. adriand ◴[] No.44401390[source]
My fantasy is that at some point we’ll have a sufficiently powerful telescope to cause a galactic “Van Leeuwenhoek moment” where, just like that discoverer of microbes, we will suddenly see the galaxy swarming with spacecraft.
replies(1): >>44402299 #
5. WalterBright ◴[] No.44401417[source]
Yes, and too bad a twin or two weren't developed simultaneously, as the additional cost would be minimal - and now we have SpaceX rockets to launch them.
6. dylan604 ◴[] No.44401726{3}[source]
yeah, nothing says proven like being retired
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7. sneak ◴[] No.44402299[source]
Assume for a moment that happens. Can you possibly imagine the chaos and turmoil that causes on Earth?
replies(1): >>44402401 #
8. unfunco ◴[] No.44402401{3}[source]
No? I genuinely think most of the world will have moved on and will be caring about something else within a day, the world will be about as chaotic and tumultuous as it was shortly after the discovery of microbes.
replies(1): >>44403649 #
9. booleandilemma ◴[] No.44403649{4}[source]
Microbes weren't discovered everywhere all at once though. I think if the entire planet found out (through modern media) people would go ballistic.