NASA Announces WFIRST As a New Space Observatory (blastingnews.com)

MarkWhittington writes: While NASA has been touting the impending launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, the space agency is already discussing the space observatory due to take off after that, WFIRST. WFIRST was adapted from a spare telescope from the National Reconnaissance Organization. WFRST is due to be launched in the mid-2020s, having evolved from a study to a full-fledged project. The telescope is estimated to cost $2 billion from now until the time it is launched and deployed.

Comments

to "i" or not to "i"

[turkeydance]

that's my question.

Re:to "i" or not to "i"

[The Grim Reefer]

It's not like the human eye can see infrared anyhow. ;-)

Re:to "i" or not to "i"

[burtosis]

It's not like the human eye can see infrared anyhow. ;-)

Actually you can see infrared past what is typically considered the human vision spectrum. It appears as a deep red color, simply look at led infrared emitters for cheap night vision cameras and you will see a dull glow in low ambient light at the junction. It's not producing light out of band it's actually your cones picking up the light as a weak red signal. I've been able to see past 1000nm in this fashion, but be careful as its not great on your eyes to stare directly at high intensity light even if it is past the human range of sight.

Dupe?

[burtosis]

Either it's typical /. Editors or I haven't had enough coffee to compensate my alcohol use. link

Re:Dupe?

[pr0fessor]

I thought there was a glitch in the matrix...

The previous was about the NASA press release this one is the press release they both should have been in the same post as they are both from the 18th.

Euclid

[Anonymous Coward]

That's great! Except that ESA's Euclid will already have done all the juicy discoveries of the primary science topics by then. WFIRST will have the crumbles and some nice things on the secondary science (yeah, IFU!). But in the end, unless Euclid explodes at launch (rare thing these days but not impossible), WFIRST is probably the worst timed mission of all times. Oh well, I should not complain, I will have twice as much data to work with, it never hurts. Still, money could have been spent more efficiently in terms of scientific return on investment

Re:Euclid

[Anonymous Coward]

Because after the first couple years of Hubble, they had nothing left for it to look at and it did no further major science.

So it begins

[gurps_npc]

The US' attempt to spy on aliens will not be the first invasion of our alien overlord's privacy, but tit shall be the last! { end joke }

WFIRST WPOST

[davidwr]

Or WSEVENTH or WEIGHTH or WSOMESUCH.

NRO mirror

[XXongo]

This is an old spy satellite for the Navy

No, not Navy: NRO. It was apparently the mirror built for the next-generation reconaissance satellite, which got cancelled.
Also, it's not the whole spy satellite-- it's just the mirror. http://www.sciencemag.org/news...

some more links of interest:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news...
http://www.skyandtelescope.com...

THIS IS THE TELESCOPE THE ARTICLE IS TALKING ABOUT

[Anonymous Coward]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_National_Reconnaissance_Office_space_telescope_donation_to_NASA

a couple of years ago the NRO donated some really fancy spy satellites to NASA, but they were designed to be launched by a military vehicle and would require extensive retrofitting for NASA to be able to use them.

makes you wonder what else are government has floating around in LEO.