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SpaceX Starship A Giant Space Telescope?
Elon Musk has suggested in a tweet that his SpaceX company's Starship could itself serve as the structure of a giant space telescope!
Yeah, that would be cool. Also, using ship itself as structure for new giant telescope that’s >10X Hubble resolution. Was talking to Saul Perlmutter (who’s awesome) & he suggested wanting to do that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2021
According to Musk, the idea of turning a Starship spacecraft into a massive space telescope was first suggested to him by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter.The first prototype may make its first attempt to reach orbit in the coming weeks, with a planned splashdown in the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii.
But once established as a stable platform, like its Falcon 9 predecessor, Starship has an opportunity to push the boundaries of astronomy by continuing Hubble’s legacy in orbit.
(Via Futurism.)
(Max Valier and Elon Musk)
Austrian rocketry pioneer (and science fiction author) Max Valier suggested essentially the same idea in his epochal story A Daring Trip to Mars:
He used the great telescope which was built into the main axis of the ship, always pointing directly along the line of flight, and which gave an enlargement of 1000 times.
(Build a ship's telescope into the axis of the ship)
See also Musk's Starship An SF Fan's Dream Come True.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/11/2021)
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