The telescopes are estimated at $ 12.4 billion.
The United States intends to launch three new telescopes into space in the next ten years in order to search for potentially habitable planets. Thomas Zurbuken, NASA assistant director in charge of scientific missions, shared these plans of the American space department with congressmen.
"In addition, NASA in January last year initiated the development of a concept for a next-generation space telescope, which is expected to be launched into orbit in the 2030s," he said at a hearing held at the US House of Representatives Space Subcommittee last week.
Zurbuken recalled that the space observatory Hubble, which was brought into orbit in 1990 and “made it possible to expand the understanding of the Universe and our place in it,” continues to make discoveries.
Search for exoplanets
Based on information obtained with the help of Hubble and other telescopes, NASA experts have previously suggested that in the Milky Way galaxy alone, in which our solar system is located, there are at least 11 billion planets, comparable in size to Earth.
Since 1995, the existence of 3.5 thousand exoplanets has been confirmed, on which life is potentially possible, and there are about 4 thousand more "candidates".
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Launch plans
“In March 2018, an apparatus called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS, satellite for the study of planets passing in front of its star - TASS note) should be launched into space,” Zurbuken said. - Now its assembly and testing of components and equipment continues. The task of TESS is to identify the planetary systems closest to us, in terms of their parameters most comparable to our solar system. In the future, they will be dealt with by telescopes that will be launched into orbits after TESS”.
“One of them is James Webb,” the assistant director continued. - Its launch is scheduled for March-June 2019. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built by man."
“Then the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST, Wide-Angle Infrared Research Telescope - TASS) will go into space,” Zurbuken said.
According to him, WFIRST will be able to observe 100 times more space than Hubble. NASA scientists expect to get with its help information not only about exoplanets, but also about the so-called dark matter, about the structure and evolution of the Universe. The launch of the WFIRST telescope is scheduled for 2024-2026.
With regard to the concept of a next-generation telescope, it was noted at the hearing that one of the four projects under consideration is the Large UltraViolet, Optical, and InfraRed observatory (LUVOIR, Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Observatory) with a mirror diameter of 15 meters. The decision is expected to be made in 2019, and the launch into space could take place in 2035.
To replace Hubble
It is James Webb who should replace Hubble. It was originally supposed to happen back in 2013. However, the implementation of the project, in which about $ 8 billion has already been invested, is far behind schedule.
At the end of September, NASA once again announced the postponement of the launch date of the new observatory - from October 2018 to the spring of 2019, justifying this by the complexity of testing its design and equipment.
The telescope, named after James Webb, the head of the Apollo program that brought man to the moon, has a 6.5-meter mirror, optical instruments and infrared sensors that will operate in outer space at temperatures of about minus 233 degrees Celsius.
The observatory is supposed to be launched far beyond the Moon into an orbit located at a distance of about 1.6 million km from the Earth's surface. Within six months, all onboard equipment will be tested, and James Webb will begin to study the universe. Its service life is calculated for 10 years.
High costs
A number of congressmen, in particular the chairman of the space subcommittee Brian Babin, expressed concern about cost overruns in the implementation of programs to create new orbital observatories. “These three telescopes are expected to cost us at least $ 12.4 billion, which is roughly 50% of all NASA funding for astrophysical projects,” he said. "While it is important for NASA to push the technological boundaries of research, it is just as important to exercise financial control over projects."
He cited the James Webb telescope development program as an example. "It is expected that ultimately it will be spent $ 8.8 billion, which is 78% more than originally announced when the project was approved," said Babin.
According to him, expenses on TESS will amount to $ 336 million, on WFIRST - from $ 3.2 billion to $ 3.4 billion.
For the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2018, Congress allocated $ 19 billion for NASA's activities.
Alexander Pakhomov