Updates WFIRST Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Updates

[Capt_hensley]

Now that we have a reference image, perhapse an add-on project will spring up?

Great articles!.

 

[orb]

SpaceNews: Donated Spy Telescopes Up for Grabs to All of NASA:

NASA will invite scientists and engineers across the agency later this month to propose potential uses for a pair of 2.4-meter spy telescopes donated to the space agency this summer by the National Reconnaissance Office.

That's all from it, because SpaceNews has changed, and doesn't publish articles for free anymore.

 

[orb]

Discovery News: Psst! What Would You Do With a Spy Telescope?:

NASA has begun surveying scientists on what they would like to do with two Hubble-class space telescopes donated to the civilian space agency by its secretive sibling, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) -- which operates the nation's spy satellites.

But the gifts have some formidable strings attached, including costs to develop instruments and launch the observatories. The telescopes, though declassified, also are subject to export regulations.

"We need to retain possession and control," NASA's astrophysics division director Paul Hertz told Discovery News. "That doesn't preclude us from partnering (with other countries). It just sets boundaries on the nature of the partnership."

NASA also isn't allowed to use the telescopes for any Earth-observing missions.

{...}

Proposals are due Jan. 7 and a follow-up workshop is planned for February.

{...}

 

[orb]

Aviation Week: NASA Ponders New Missions For Spare Spy Telescopes

Spaceflight Now: NASA seeks ideas to use Hubble-class spy telescopes

SPACE.com: How Should NASA Use Former Spy Satellite Telescopes?

Space News: NASA Issues Call for NRO Space Telescope Ideas:

{...}

On Nov. 27, NASA issued a much broader solicitation for ideas and set a deadline of Jan. 7 to receive abstracts. The formal request for information is open to all parties, not just NASA personnel.

“This is about as wide an aperture for ideas as you could imagine,” said Michael Moore, NASA’s assistant director for innovation and technology.

“One of the things we’re trying to find out in this second study is if there are things that might make sense external to the astrophysics activity. Astrophysics is limited in its ability to do anything based on pre-existing project developments in our budget. The rest of the agency has potentially more flexibility,” Moore said.

“Can you use the hardware to address things that are being done in advanced technology development or with humans or with robotics? That expands the universe of potential users. There are interesting things you can do for other reasons that wouldn’t be science-driven necessarily,” he said.

{...}

AmericaSpace: Proposals Sought for Two NASA Space Telescopes

Space Daily: NASA Seeks Concepts For Innovative Uses Of Large Space Telescopes

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: NASA Mulls Missions for Donated Spy Satellite Telescopes

Discovery News: Mulling Ideas for NASA's Donated Spy Telescopes

 

[RGClark]

Discussion of using the new telescopes for planetary defense, asteroid prospecting, and Mars orbiter satellites:

Low cost development and applications of the new NRO donated telescopes.
http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2012/06/low-cost-development-and-applications.html

Bob Clark

Excellent news:

NASA May Launch Donated Spy Satellite Telescope to Mars.
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior WriterDate: 15 May 2013 Time: 04:30 AM ET

The NRO's gift to NASA of unused spy satellites could enable a new project termed MOST, or Mars-Orbiting Space Telescope.
...
As it's currently envisioned, MOST would have three main science instruments — an imaging spectral mapper, a high-resolution imager and an ultraviolet spectrometer — allowing it to make a broad range of detailed observations.
The mapper would have a spatial resolution of 0.7 feet (0.21 m) per pixel at an orbiting altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers), McEwen said. That's about 100 times better than the resolution achieved by a similar instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which has been circling the Red Planet since 2006.
...
MOST's imaging instrument would be able to photograph small areas with a resolution of 3.1 inches (8 centimeters) per pixel — about four times better than MRO's HiRise instrument (which McEwen leads as principal investigator).
...
Looking beyond Mars
MOST would also be built to look up and out, beyond the Red Planet and its two tiny moons.
The telescope's UV spectrometer is envisioned to be similar to that of the Hubble Space Telescope. But MOST likely wouldn't be able to study extremely distant objects as well as the famous HST, because installing a Hubble-like guidance and navigation system that allows a prolonged lock on such faint targets would raise the price tag significantly, McEwen said.
Instead, MOST may be optimized to view planets and moons in the outer solar system.
"We decided to emphasize bright targets, so mostly solar system targets — monitoring Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune atmospheres, monitoring volcanism on [Jupiter's moon] Io and cloud patterns on [Saturn's moon] Titan," McEwen said. "There's an interesting variety of things you could do in planetary science with it."​

http://www.space.com/21064-nasa-donated-spy-telescope-mars.html

Bob Clark

 

[sorindafabico]

Well, in about fifteen years we'll have improved surface tiles for Olympus :hmm:

 

[Urwumpe]

Well, in about fifteen years we'll have improved surface tiles for Olympus :hmm:

I think the MRO data will still be much better and available sooner.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia12992.html

 

[Unstung]

So NASA may use a decades old spy satellite to spy on Martians. It's a significant improvement over the MRO yet these telescopes are already obsolete to the military. The technology the NRO currently uses must be unbelievable.

 

[Urwumpe]

So NASA may use a decades old spy satellite to spy on Martians. It's a significant improvement over the MRO yet these telescopes are already obsolete to the military. The technology the NRO currently uses must be unbelievable.

the laws of physics also apply to the NRO. :lol:

EDIT: Didn't see they plan to have one such telescope as Mars Orbiter... would be interesting, but still I doubt the amount of data will make better surface tiles.

 

[RGClark]

Here is the report by McEwen at the "Study on Applications of Large Space Optics" (SALSO) workshop:

The Mars Orbiting Space Telescope (MOST).
http://salso.msfc.nasa.gov/lib/119Mcewen.pdf

The NRO scopes were reported to be lighter than Hubble, but I was surprised how much lighter. The study by McEwen uses a mass of only 2,000 kg for the telescope and instruments. This is compared to a mass of 11,000 kg for the Hubble. In that case it's surprising it's felt solar electric propulsion would be needed to put it in Mars orbit, not even to land. Quite likely a Delta IV Heavy could do it, certainly a Falcon Heavy could.

Other proposed uses for the NRO scopes discussed at the SALSO workshop available here:

SALSO Abstract Library.
http://salso.msfc.nasa.gov/


Bob Clark

 

[Mader Levap]

The technology the NRO currently uses must be unbelievable.

Yeah, antigravity, astral projection and hamsters.

 

[kamaz]

Yeah, antigravity, astral projection and hamsters.

Tried already, but apparently satellites work better, otherwise, they would be defunded...

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats"]The Men Who Stare at Goats - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Urwumpe]

Tried already, but apparently satellites work better, otherwise, they would be defunded...

The Men Who Stare at Goats - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But, off-topic, an epic movie, I love it. :lol:

 

[sorindafabico]

I think the MRO data will still be much better and available sooner.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia12992.html

Hirise has resolution of 0.21 meters/pixel? The image above sounds cool for an Olympus Mons mesh, but I meant the Olympus Base.

 

[Unstung]

Yeah, antigravity, astral projection and hamsters.

Exactly, the NRO's telescopes can resolve things so small that the details are subject to quantum effects.

I've exaggerated my point.

 

[RGClark]

Here is the report by McEwen at the "Study on Applications of Large Space Optics" (SALSO) workshop:

The Mars Orbiting Space Telescope (MOST).
http://salso.msfc.nasa.gov/lib/119Mcewen.pdf

The NRO scopes were reported to be lighter than Hubble, but I was surprised how much lighter. The study by McEwen uses a mass of only 2,000 kg for the telescope and instruments. This is compared to a mass of 11,000 kg for the Hubble. In that case it's surprising it's felt solar electric propulsion would be needed to put it in Mars orbit, not even to land. Quite likely a Delta IV Heavy could do it, certainly a Falcon Heavy could.

Other proposed uses for the NRO scopes discussed at the SALSO workshop available here:

SALSO Abstract Library.
http://salso.msfc.nasa.gov/

NASA has decided to use the telescopes only for astrophysics, not for planetary missions such as to observe Mars :

Only NASA Astrophysics Remains in Running for Donated NRO Telescope — For Now.
By Dan Leone | Jun. 4, 2013
http://www.spacenews.com/article/ci...-for-donated-nro-telescope-—-for#.Ua9QPBkT8-9


Bob Clark

 

[Keatah]

In that case it's surprising it's felt solar electric propulsion would be needed to put it in Mars orbit..

It would be using SEP for technology demonstrator purposes. And you could also do other maneuvering with SEP.

 

[mahdavi3d]

spacenews.com : NASA weighs delaying WFIRST to fund JWST overrun

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[mahdavi3d]

nasa.gov : NASA Telescope Named For ‘Mother of Hubble’ Nancy Grace Roman