U.S. funding report focuses on ambitious W-FIRST space telescope

by Steven Mostyn - Aug 16 2010, 12:10

Apparently the galaxy is dense with Earth-like planets, and it will cost around $1.6 billion USD in order to equip scientific stargazers with the necessary equipment to find them, according to a new report released by the National Academy of Sciences.

The latest Astro2010 Decadal Survey, which sets out the most important funding priorities of space science for the next 10 years, has indicated that astronomers and astrophysicists should be channelling their energies into the realisation of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (W-FIRST).

Although currently little more than a concept, the next-generation telescope could be ready to blast toward the stars by 2020, offers the report, and could potentially enable scientists to locate life-sustaining planets and perhaps even uncover the origins of the universe – if governments are willing to fund its creation.

With a projected price tag of around $1.6 billion USD, the W-FIRST telescope may sound like a great deal of money. It isn’t. Moreover, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (last year’s leading report recommendation) will likely have a total cost of $5 billion USD when it launches in 2014. Meanwhile, the existing Hubble Space Telescope currently has a cumulative cost that reaches beyond $10 billion USD.

If constructed, the W-FIRST telescope, which topped the annual report’s list of ‘large space project’ candidates, would be able to gaze deep through space time thanks to being equipped with a 1.5 metre field-of-view. The far-reaching telescope is considered to be the perfect solution to assist in the search for Earth-like worlds, explore the universe’s beginnings, and delve into the mysteries of dark matter.

In terms of large ground-based projects that demand funding priority, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope emerged as the report’s most deserving candidate. Designed to scan through the entire sky every three days, this massive 8.4-metre scope is being planned for construction in Chile and would cost an estimated $460 million to build and a further $40 million per year to operate and maintain.

Existing as more than a mere culmination of opinion taken from around the scientific community, the Astro Decadal survey has often been used by the likes of NASA in helping to plan its mission portfolio. The survey’s top recommendations have a high success rate where implementation is concerned.

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