Given the accomplishments of Hubble, and EHT using the VLBI technique and the great potential of JWST, I was thinking about using the best of all these technologies and placing a space telescope (maybe a copy of JWST) in the Sun-Mars L2 LaGrange point or at least in orbit around Mars. If we were to use Hubble, JWST and observatories on the ground as well as this new space telescope, the potential discoveries would be staggering. I was thinking that if we were to use SLS or Starship once it is viable, the launching of such a telescope to Mars would be easily achievable. Having a telescope in place around Mars would allow for unprecedented resolution as well as the ability to obtain 3-dimensional data. In searching for exo-planets this ability could yield unimaginable results.
Purpose built SS as the space telescope
Lagrange points of other planets are not close to Earth and would offer no advantage over more or less arbitrary solar orbits (As long as they stay far away from large thermal sources like planets, which is easy to do since the solar system is big and mostly empty.)
Quote from: Barley on 01/26/2022 02:58 amLagrange points of other planets are not close to Earth and would offer no advantage over more or less arbitrary solar orbits (As long as they stay far away from large thermal sources like planets, which is easy to do since the solar system is big and mostly empty.)To find asteroids that might threaten Earth from the sunward direction, a telescope is best located closer to the sun than Earth is. The telescope need be kept cool to maximize IR sensitivity. So how about parking a telescope at Venusian L2?I have not done the calculations, but I would guess Venus's diameter is insufficient to totally eclipse the sun at L2, but an annular eclipse would substantially reduce the heating, since Venus's effective temperature is much lower than the sun's. It depends whether a very tight halo orbit is feasible. If not, as is likely, you could wind up with the worst of both worlds: full solar exposure plus a bit of a contribution from Venus.
Quote from: Proponent on 01/27/2022 12:52 pmQuote from: Barley on 01/26/2022 02:58 amLagrange points of other planets are not close to Earth and would offer no advantage over more or less arbitrary solar orbits (As long as they stay far away from large thermal sources like planets, which is easy to do since the solar system is big and mostly empty.)To find asteroids that might threaten Earth from the sunward direction, a telescope is best located closer to the sun than Earth is. The telescope need be kept cool to maximize IR sensitivity. So how about parking a telescope at Venusian L2?I have not done the calculations, but I would guess Venus's diameter is insufficient to totally eclipse the sun at L2, but an annular eclipse would substantially reduce the heating, since Venus's effective temperature is much lower than the sun's. It depends whether a very tight halo orbit is feasible. If not, as is likely, you could wind up with the worst of both worlds: full solar exposure plus a bit of a contribution from Venus.That is an interesting idea. If I have the math right at Venus L2 Venus eclipses 88% of the suns area, with a bigger reduction in heating due to limb darkening of the sun. The comparable figure for Earth is 85%. (It turns out this depends on the density of the planet, so Mercury is similar to Earth. For the outer planets L2 should be in full eclipse.)
No, not worth the effort. VLBI doesn't work well with optical part of the spectrum
Outside of radio, what spectra works best with long baselines?
Would small data relay satellite near JWST help improve its download speed. Was thinking something using laser to download data to Earth. Being close to JWST it doesn't need much of RF antenna/dish to achieve max download datarate from JWST. Given they've spent $10B an $100-200M to maximize its use would seem like wise investment.
There're proposals for putting space telescope in the outer solar system, there're legitimate science reasons for it: A small telescope past Saturn could solve some mysteries of the universe better than giant telescopes near Earth