NASA creates flying telescope
This is an attempt to get some great images from space, but without the costs involved by maintaining the Hubble telescope in space, which is great but hugely expensive.
This forms part of the NASA Origins program and by working with the DLR who are the German Aerospace Centre they have developed a flying telescope inside a Boeing 747SP. This will fly at 47,000 feet and should some really cool images from space.
This could be a viable alternative to the Hubble and the space used to maintain it, however we will need to wait for until around 2009to see if it works as good as hope, when it is fully operational.
Source [Oh Gizmo]
Tags: boeing, Cameras, Chemistry, Computer, Cool, cool_images, Entrepreneurs, Flying, german_aerospace_centre, hubble_telescope, nasa, nasa_origins_program, Solar, Space
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December 12th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
It’s fiting that the program is called Origins for many reasons, including the fact that Richard Garriott will be in space in late 2008, if you don’t know who he is he’s the founder of Origin Systems (a gaming company).
Just a thought though… turbulence and other aerodynamic anomalies inherent from the plane moving through air at a minimum speed will distort images a little… even if only from minute vibrations. When are they going to hoist one of the telescopes up there by hot air baloon?