Going beyond physical limitations of telescopes, Stanford University astrophysicists have been working on a new conceptual imaging technique that would be 1,000 times more precise than the strongest imaging technology currently in use. By taking advantage of gravity’s warping effect on space-time, called lensing, scientists could potentially manipulate this phenomenon to create imaging far more …
Slava G. Turyshev and his team are on their phase III NASA NIAC project to develop a solar gravitational lens telescope. At optical or near-optical wavelengths, the amplification of light is on the order of 200 billion times and with equally impressive angular resolution. If we can reach this region beginning at 550 AU from …
James Webb Space Telescope—the most powerful space telescope ever made is in space. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging …
Tomorrow is the day James Webb Space Telescope launches. Dec. 25. 2021 has a 32-minute launch window opens at 7:20 a.m. EST in Kourou, French Guiana. Above -Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope onboard, is seen at the launch pad, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, at Europe’s Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center …
Sutter Ultra is a NASA NIAC phase 2 study to find smaller and slower asteroids up to 350 times faster than all existing surveys combined. They will use sensor configuration with many low cost, high performance Compound Telescopes with Matched Filter (CTMF) technology, arrayed into a fully integrated system. They are making a ground demo …
A NASA NIAC Phase III is developing and plans to fly a 2022 TDM (Technology Demonstration Mission) to prove the SGLF’s (Solar Gravitational Lens Focus) mission architecture. They will then prepare a near-term (by 2024), low-cost (less than $40M) mission to fly through the solar system faster than any spacecraft ever ~7 AU/year, capable of …
Space Telescope Design That Will Be 400 Times Better at Finding Asteroids
3 Mile Wide Lunar Crater Radio Telescope for the Far Side of the Moon
Robert Zubrin has proposed using rotating membranes to create Enormous Space Telescopes (ESTs) that can scale to over 1000 meter diameter or match current space telescopes for thousands of time lower cost. They would also not require the construction of large structures. A demonstration cubesat EST could have an aperture larger than the Webb Space …
U.S. National Science Foundation provided video of the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory. Credit: Courtesy of the Arecibo Observatory. This video was taken from the vantage point of the Arecibo operations building. At the center of the video is the telescope platform, including the Gregorian dome. The catwalk, used to walk from the ground up …
ESA’s exoplanet mission Ariel, scheduled for launch in 2029, has moved from study to implementation phase, following which an industrial contractor will be selected to build the spacecraft. Ariel, the Atmospheric remote-sensing infrared exoplanet large-survey mission, addresses one of the key themes of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme: What are the conditions for planet formation and …