Farther into Space; Farther into Debt

Over the past several decades we have come a long way in the study of outer space. Since the time of Copernicus, Bruno, and Galileo we have discovered not only things in our galaxy, but we can begin to study others as well. On Wednesday November 10^th NASA announced that in 2014 they plan to launch their new telescope; The James Webb Space Telescope. This new telescope will use infrared light to find ancient galaxies that formed in the wake of the big bang.

“Webb will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open once Webb is in outer space. Webb will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth” (NASA).

Critics at CNET news propose that this new space telescope will cost upwards of about $6.5 billion and does not fit into NASA’s budget. CNET speculates that the close launch date of 2014 is too early, and would require NASA to come up with an additional $250 million in both 2011 and 2012.

On April 24^th 1990 NASA launched a space telescope into outer space called Hubble. In the past twenty years since then, it has led astronomers to estimate, with high certainty, the age of the universe at about 13.7 billion years old. It has also given photographic evidence that what Ptolemy thought was a star called Omega Centauri, is actually a cluster of about 10 million stars. Click here to watch what Hubble has recorded of the Omega Centauri.

Though one might argue that the US doesn’t exactly have enough pocket change to cover this hefty $6.5 billion bill, I would argue that it is something worth exploring. If Hubble, costing only about 4 million dollars, is any indication of what the James Webb Space Telescope can do, I would say it is worth the expense! During the Renaissance our ancestors spent a lot of their time and money into studying unknowns of nature on earth, and began to skim the surface of outerspace. Now with the technology we have access to, we are able to do what they never could. Looking deeper into space, to find something that can answer our questions about how we got here, why, and if there is life sustained somewhere else in the universe.

“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” -Copernicus

for more information go to NASA's website.

Harwood, William. "Management Blamed for Space Telescope Cost Overrun | The Space Shot - CNET News." Technology News - CNET News. 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

NASA - Hubble Data Used to Look 10,000 Years into the Future." NASA. 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

the future as we see it...

It’s pretty much inevitable that at the rate we are going at now, technology is just going to keep advancing as time goes on. Though it is hard not to fear what is unknown and undiscovered, I can only hope that there will be positive outcomes from these advances and that will make our quality of life better.

The reason we find ourselves in the midst of a technological revolution is because we have so many hopes and wishes for what these advances may bring. For example, even just in the past two years or so there have been discoveries in technology that can help the blind see. By placing an electrode array on the surface of a tongue, scientists have developed a way to send visual information from a video device to the electrode. “study participants have been able to recognize high-contrast objects, their location, movement, and some aspects of perspective and depth” Being able to make the blind see is so mind boggling that you can only imagine what other things are possible. Curing diseases such as aids, or even cancer seems a little bit more realistic now.

http://vision.wicab.com/technology/