Not many will of heard of this one........

[Daz Type-R]

So NASA is just starting out on a new 6 year mission involving a space based telescope with a primary mirror the size of Hubbles but with a FOV 100 times greater than that of Hubble.  NASA main page here......

 

http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

 

Now I was a bit surprised that I had not heard about this sooner, probably due to the excitement of the JWST (James Web Space Telescope) but it turns out that the WFirst is being designed on the quiet.

 

I listen to a number of pod casts each day on my commute to work, one of them being the 365 days of astronomy pod cast and it was on that today that a number of the presenters and co-presenters (Fraiser Cain, Paul Mat Sutter, Morgan Remburg) came up with a few interesting facts about WFirst.

 

Turns out it is one of 2 telescopes that the NRO "dont need any more as they are out of date" and have given to NASA to be used in the field of dark energy, exo planets and infra-red astrophysics.  Now the NRO is similar to our GCHQ and are considered to be one of the top 5 American secret services, so the fact they have 2 going spare as they are "old tech", just gives a very brief insight into what sort of ground based observations the secret services have.

 

Also turns out that the majority of the WFirst designers have had to sign the official secrets act (or the American equivalent) as they have had insight to the design and specs of government built telescopes.

 

All interesting stuff and I`m glad to see old spy kit being put to good use.

 

Just makes you wonder though, if this old kit is perfect for NASA, what on Earth are the NRO using now!!!!!

 

WFirst is due for launch in the mid 2020's, should offer some good insight into the early universe.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Daz Type-R