Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to HST may be outdated in certain aspects, but...

But it does hurt
Larry J — (archived)

One more functioning telescope exploring the Cosmos does not hurt.

The cost of operating that one Hubble telescope for a year is almost certainly higher than the cost of building a new telescope that can be operated for a tiny fraction of the HST's cost. If the amount of funding remain essentially unchanged (no evidence that it'll increase anytime soon), then every year you operate the HST, you're effectively giving up on adding at least one new telescope to the inventory. So, after 10 years, you could either still have the HST or at least 10 more telescopes on the ground. HST observation time is a limited and expensive resource meaning it's difficult for astronomers to get time on it. Adding more telescopes over time increases the amount of scientific data collected for the same amount of money.

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