Future Optical Space Telescopes - i.e. Hubble 2.0 ect

[Stormbringer]

i bet it will have benefits for spaceborne technology too

it should advance the state of the art.

[Star One]

Here's a follow on article from Ted Molczan to the one I linked to in my OP with further educated speculation.

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/May-2015/0096.html

[Burninate]

On the topic of (currently) 1.1m aperture non-astronomical space telescopes,

From Twitter:  < pbdes> [c0] DigitalGlobe CEO Tarr: Our next-gen sats to be much less costly per unit than our current sats, which are ~$750M apiece inc launch/insure.

[Mr. D]

On the topic of (currently) 1.1m aperture non-astronomical space telescopes,

From Twitter:  < pbdes> [c0] DigitalGlobe CEO Tarr: Our next-gen sats to be much less costly per unit than our current sats, which are ~$750M apiece inc launch/insure.

Well, Kepler cost 600M$ (FY 2009) for a 0.95m schmidt camera with a 1.4m primary. Gaia cost about 740Meuros (FY2013) for 2x 1.45x0.5m telescopes. Modest aperture astronomical space telescopes with simple(-ish in the case of Gaia) instruments can be done in a manageable budget.

Large aperture space telescopes with a generalist array of instruments is another matter entirely.