Two former spy telescopes are now being scrutinized by NASA for use in a new scientific space mission, which would study mysterious dark energy, according to a senior official involved in the project.
The satellites given to NASA by the National Reconnaissance
Office intelligence agency, could be used in a project named
WFIRST-AFTA (the Wide Field Infrared Survey
Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets). The launch date
is planned for around a year 2024, a report by Space.com says.
The aims of the WFIRST-AFTA project are reportedly ranging from
studying dark energy, which is thought to be accelerating the
expansion of the universe, to a search for exoplanets (planets
that orbit a star other than the sun).
The two former spy telescopes considered for use in this mission
have the same resolution as NASA’s famous Hubble Space Telescope,
but a field view, which is 200 times wider.
“We are going to use these telescopes as they are and we do
not have to make modifications, but we do have to resurface the
mirror, as it's been sitting in storage, and we also need to
design a spacecraft and the instruments to take advantage of
their properties,” Paul Hertz, NASA's astrophysics chief,
told Space.com.
If the program is approved, one telescope will be used for space
observations and the other will be an engineering test bed on the
ground for some time and then will be freed for other uses, Hertz
added.
So far, the NASA scientists have been addressing the issue of the
first telescope’s space location. They are debating whether it
should it be closer to Earth so it can send the data to the
researchers more quickly, or farther away, so the telescope can
get a broader view without being blocked by planet Earth.
These alternatives suggest placing the telescope either in an
orbit a few thousand miles from Earth or at a stable
gravitational point Earth-sun L2 around 930,000 miles (1.5
million km) from our planet.
Giving an exact start date to the WFIRST-AFTA mission could prove
tricky, as it will take a lot of time and effort in order for the
project to come to fruition.
In mid-March, WFIRST-AFTA's team presented an overview of the proposed space mission. However, it still has to overcome a number of reviews if it will ever see the light of day. Firstly, it has to get approval from NASA's astrophysics division. Then it needs to get the green light from NASA’s budgetary and request program. If all goes to plan it will be sent to the White House in time for the 2017 budget and finally Congress must approve it.
Should the project be financed, the selection of the contractors
will take roughly four more years.
In addition, the total cost of WFIRST-AFTA is not yet known and
NASA has already come under fire for cost overruns on its
programs. “So we don't want to be surprised, and we don't
want to underestimate that cost and give people a false
impression," Hertz commented on the financial aspect of the
project.
NASA received the two telescopes from the National Reconnaissance
Office (NRO) in 2012. They were originally intended for the
‘Future Imaginary Architecture’ program, aimed at creating a new
generation of reconnaissance satellites for US intelligence.
However, it was later canceled and labeled “the most
spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of
American spy satellite projects” by the New York Times.
According to David Spergel, co-chair for WFIRST-AFTA's
science-definition team, the NRO’s donation of the two telescopes
came as a surprise. The telescopes are still in storage with a
contractor awaiting NASA’s decision about what to do with them.