I was thrilled today to see a proposal for the Hubble Origins Probe, which would be a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope. Due to the absurd cost of a Space Shuttle launch (Robert Zubrin estimates, in Entering Space, that one costs approximately $600M USD) this would actually be cheaper than repairing the existing telescope!
The design of the Hubble would be re-used (which itself is just a re-hashed KH-11) and the new intruments that have already been constructed to go up with the next maintenance launch would be included in this new probe. A new ultra-wide field camera would be added, which would improve the overall science mission at less cost.
Kudos to the HOP team for figuring out this little economic coup. Now here's hoping that the politicians will listen!
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