Chapter 555 [News announced, the astronomy community exploded]
Chapter 555 [The news was announced, and the astronomy community exploded]
Author: Zhaolingsiyu
It is worth mentioning that the survey space telescope project plan, if we do not calculate the subsequent hidden gains brought about by potential industrial chain upgrades and technology upgrades, and just look at the telescope itself, it is indeed a big gamble.
Because once it is launched, it means that you can only leave it to fate in the future. It can only be controlled remotely. It cannot be launched like the old American Hubble Space Telescope. If the lens is not good, astronauts can go up to repair it and perform regular maintenance.
Maintenance, replacement of parts, etc.
After the survey space telescope is launched, maintenance and repairs are not even a thought.
The reason why the Hubble Space Telescope can be maintained and repaired is because it orbits the Earth in a low-Earth orbit about 600 kilometers above the surface. According to its design, the Survey Space Telescope does not orbit the Earth, but needs to fly to
The L2 Lagrange point is 1.5 million kilometers away from the earth.
The distance between the earth and the moon is 380,000 kilometers, which is equivalent to about 4 times the distance between the earth and the moon. Therefore, once it is launched, there is no possibility of subsequent maintenance. It is still necessary to ensure that everything is foolproof, even if there is a slight mistake, hundreds of billions of investments will be wasted.
It is not an exaggeration to say it was a huge gamble.
The survey space telescope has to be sent to a location as far as 1.5 million kilometers away, rather than sent to low-Earth orbit like the Hubble Space Telescope. Naturally, the mission is different, and the observation tasks it undertakes are far beyond that of the Hubble Space Telescope.
It requires the observation of extremely low brightness stars, galaxies, planets, etc. in the universe.
In short, the survey space telescope will observe the first galaxies born in the early days of the universe 13.5 billion years ago, and observe stars, exoplanets and even the sources of satellites and asteroids in the solar system.
Its observation field of view is actually smaller than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. This is because the human astronomy community has found many exoplanets so far, and another mission of the survey space telescope is to target these exoplanets that have been found.
The lens is adjusted to conduct more detailed observations of the space coordinates where these planets are located, thereby obtaining more accurate data, such as analyzing the composition and structure of their planetary atmospheres through spectroscopy.
The observation capability of the survey space telescope is equivalent to putting a 2.5-watt night light on the moon, and then looking at the brightness of the night light from the ground. If the brightness is 20, then the survey space telescope will find one-twentieth of the brightness.
Celestial bodies.
Therefore, to achieve such high observation conditions requires cooperation from many aspects.
The first is the space location. It is definitely not possible to place the Hubble Space Telescope in a low-Earth orbit space location, because the observation conditions of the survey space telescope are different. The Hubble Space Telescope looks at visible light and ultraviolet light, and there are a little bit more
It has excellent infrared observation capabilities, so it does not have very high requirements on the brightness of the surrounding environment.
The most important thing is that the Hubble Space Telescope can be repaired, and people can be sent up to replace parts and so on, and the accuracy can be improved.
But the main focus of the survey space telescope is infrared observation capabilities. If you want to see extremely low-brightness objects in infrared imaging, the surrounding environment needs to be very cold and very dark. If it orbits the earth, it will definitely not work. Direct sunlight and reflection from the earth
All light will affect the observations of the Dao Surveying Space Telescope.
The position of the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2 is very suitable. This position is exactly when the sun and the earth are in a straight line, and the position of the L2 point is in the shadow area behind the earth. The survey space telescope is in this shadow area.
You can use the earth to block direct sunlight.
It is worth mentioning that the Lagrange point is a special three-body problem. That is, when any two celestial bodies in space are orbiting, there will be 5 points in the space where a third object can be placed. This third object
The relative position of the object to these two celestial bodies remains unchanged.
That is to say, the five Lagrangian points are in gravitational equilibrium positions, which can keep the objects at these points relatively stationary with the two celestial bodies. If spacecraft are placed at these points, they can also save a lot of space.
fuel.
The survey space telescope needs to avoid sunlight. Of the five Lagrangian points, only the L2 point is the most suitable. Because the earth can block most of the sunlight, it can naturally greatly reduce the impact of sunlight on the survey space telescope.
.
Then it can reduce fuel consumption and maintain a long working time in the shadow area of the earth. According to the current design idea of the survey space telescope, after the launch is successfully docked at the Lagrange point L2 on the predetermined orbit,
The remaining fuel can guarantee the working time of the telescope for fifteen years.
If the fuel is exhausted, there is definitely no way to do it now but to leave it to fate.
But there may be a way in the future. The Survey Space Telescope project is now approved and is expected to be launched in 2021. The total working time is expected to be about fifteen years. In other words, when its fuel is exhausted, it will already be 2O35.
Already.
Over a span of twenty-five years, technological progress is certainly not comparable to that of today.
After 2O35, it may be possible to use advanced artificial intelligence technology and other auxiliary means at that time to carry out unmanned supply operations, transport the supply fuel directly to the L2 Lagrange point 1.5 million kilometers away, and then provide
The survey space telescope will be replenished, and then it can be extended for another fifteen years or something.
This point is left blank in the current demonstration and design stage. Whether the technology can be realized twenty-five years from now cannot be said yet, but this pit must be dug in advance.
If the conditions are not met then, forget it. If the technical conditions can be met, if we don't prepare in advance now, we will just stare blankly.
Fang Hong knew that it could definitely be done technically, so he had to prepare in advance.
After all, such a large-scale budget investment only takes fifteen years, which is actually quite uneconomical when you think about it. However, if it can be continued for fifteen years, it will be used for a total of thirty years. Even if it can continue to extend the life of the survey telescope,
It’s not necessary, because there will definitely be more advanced technology by then, and technically this old antique will be eliminated.
The best result at that time would be to transport it back and put it on display in an astronomical museum.
…
Monday, November 28th.
The Natural Science Foundation held a press conference this morning and officially announced the approval of the funding plan for the new scientific research project "Sky Survey Space Telescope".
According to the spokesperson's disclosure, the project is scheduled to be officially launched in early 2012 next year and is expected to be launched around 2O2O. It will take about eight to nine years. The estimated funding required for the project is 5.5 billion yuan for the first phase.
The total budget scale is 75 billion to 100 billion yuan.
When the spokesperson of the Natural Science Foundation disclosed the size of the budget at a press conference, all the media reporters in the audience were in an uproar. One even thought that there was something wrong with his ears and he heard wrongly.
It would cost so much to get a telescope up there?
Domestic investment in the aerospace field for a whole year is only RMB 100 billion. Your entire telescope will cost RMB 100 billion?
Simply outrageous!
Do you want to be so willful?
The news was quickly brought to the public eye through various media reports, and it attracted huge attention for a while, and controversy arose as expected.
Don't understand!
The public does not understand at all that it costs so much to buy a telescope. Where does the money go?
But the Natural Science Foundation did not explain too much.
The domestic astronomical community, and even the international astronomical community, exploded with the announcement of this news, and foreign media also competed to quote reports, causing a huge sensation in the global astronomical academic community.
The budget scale reaches 75 billion to 100 billion yuan, which is 11.8 billion to 15.7 billion US dollars excluding exchange rate changes. It is indeed an astronomical observation project, and even the budget is astronomical.
This number is incredible even to foreigners.
As a researcher engaged in this field, I find it both incredible and exciting.
