Quote:
Originally Posted by Drbuzz0
I realize this is one of those sorta fuzzy questions, but I am wondering if there are any other good examples of space telescopes with a similar mission to Hubble. Not really things like compton, Chandra, soho or things built for a single primary purpose.
Basically: General purpose or broad mission, optical telescopes using visible light, or UV or near visible IR, but excluding telescopes especially designed only for work in the lower thermal IR range, x-ray telescopes... that sort of thing.
Yes, it is a blurry line, but basically stuff with a lens and CCD and optical sensors, as opposed to a scintillation imager or something similar. And intended for broad use for stars, galaxies etc etc.
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At the moment, as far as I know, there are no such telescopes in orbit other than HST. When JWST is launched, it will operate in this general manner (though it won't have much optical capability, concentrating on the near-IR).
The Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) is a collaboration between NASA and DOE to put into space some sort of telescope + detector which can study dark energy. Some of the ideas proposed for JDEM involve roughly 2-meter optical telescopes with boatloads of optical and/or near-IR detectors. JDEM's mission is supposed to be focused on one goal, so it shouldn't have general observing by a wide pool of applicants; on the other hand, the type of survey it should carry out seems to change over time ...
JDEM may never be funded or built or launched. If it does go into space, it probably won't be for 6-10 years.