It is worth mentioning that the survey space telescope project plan, if you do not calculate the follow-up hidden gains brought about by the potential industrial chain upgrade and technological upgrading, just look at the telescope itself, which can indeed be regarded as a big gamble.

Because once launched, it means that the follow-up can only be left to fate, and can only be remotely controlled, and it is impossible to launch it like the old American Hubble Space Telescope, and the lenses can still be repaired by astronauts, and they can also be regularly maintained, replaced with parts, or something.

After the launch of the Sky Survey Space Telescope, repairs and maintenance are not to be considered.

The reason why the Hubble Space Telescope can be maintained and repaired is that it orbits the Earth in a low-Earth orbit about 600 kilometers above the surface, while the Survey Space Telescope, according to its design, does not orbit the Earth, but needs to fly to the L2 Lagrange point, which 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, so once it is launched, there is no possibility of later maintenance.

It's not an exaggeration to say it's a big gamble.

The Survey Space Telescope has to be sent to a position as far as 1.5 million kilometers, instead of being sent to low earth orbit like the Hubble Space Telescope, which naturally has a different mission and the observation task it undertakes is far beyond that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

It requires the observation of Hengxin, galaxies, planets, etc., which have extremely low brightness in the universe.

In a nutshell, the Survey Space Telescope will observe the first galaxies that were born in the early universe 13.5 billion years ago, and also observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even the moons and asteroids of the solar system.

Its observation field is actually smaller than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, because the human astronomical community has found a lot of exoplanets, and another task of the Survey Space Telescope is to adjust the lens to the space coordinates of these planets for more detailed observation of these found exoplanets, so as to obtain more accurate data, such as analyzing the composition of the planet's atmosphere through spectroscopy.

The observation ability of the Survey Space Telescope is equivalent to putting a 2.5-watt night light on the moon, and then seeing from the ground that the brightness of the night light is 20, then the Survey Space Telescope is to find the object with the brightness of one-twentieth brightness.

Therefore, in order to achieve such high observation conditions, many aspects are required.

The first is the spatial position, like the Hubble Space Telescope in the low earth orbit space position is definitely not good, because the observation conditions of the Survey Space Telescope are different, the Hubble Space Telescope looks at visible light and ultraviolet light, as well as a little bit of infrared observation ability, so the requirements for the brightness of the surrounding environment are not very high.

The most important thing is that the Hubble Space Telescope can be repaired, and it can also be sent to people to replace parts or something, and the accuracy can also be improved.

However, the main focus of the survey space telescope is the infrared observation ability, infrared imaging wants to see the object with very low brightness, it needs the surrounding environment is very cold, very dark, if it revolves around the earth is definitely not possible, the direct sunlight, the reflected light of the earth will affect the observation of the survey space telescope.

The position of the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2 is very suitable, this position is exactly in a straight line between the sun and the earth, and the position of the L2 point is in the shadow area behind the earth, and the survey space telescope can use the earth to block the direct sunlight in this shadow area.

It is worth mentioning that the Lagrangian point is a special three-body problem, that is, when any two celestial bodies in space are orbiting, there will be 5 points in space where a third object can be placed, and the relative position of the third object and the two celestial bodies can remain unchanged.

That is, the five Lagrangian points are in a position of gravitational equilibrium, which allows the objects at these points to remain relatively stationary with the two celestial bodies, and if spacecraft are placed on these points, they can also save fuel to a large extent.

The Survey Space Telescope needs to avoid the irradiation of sunlight, and only the L2 point of the five Lagrangian points is the most suitable, because the earth can block most of the sunlight, which can naturally greatly reduce the influence of sunlight on the Survey Space Telescope.

According to the current design idea of the Sky Survey Space Telescope, after the successful launch of the L2 point of the Lagrange point in the predetermined orbit, the remaining fuel can ensure the working time of the telescope for 15 years.

If the fuel runs out, there is definitely no choice but to resign to fate.

However, there may be a way in the future, and the survey space telescope is now in the project, which is expected to be launched in 2021, and the total working time is expected to be about fifteen years, in other words, when it runs out of fuel, it will be 2O35 years.

With a time span of 25 years, technological progress is certainly not comparable to today's.

In 2O35, it may be possible to carry out unmanned replenishment operations through advanced artificial intelligence technology and other auxiliary means at that time, and directly transport the replenishment fuel to the L2 Lagrange point 1.5 million kilometers away, and then resupply the survey space telescope, which can be renewed for another fifteen years or something.

This point is blank in the current demonstration and design stage, and whether the technology can be realized after 25 years is not the first to be pressed, but this pit must be dug in advance.

At that time, if the conditions can't be done, forget it, if the technical conditions can be achieved, if you don't prepare in advance now, you can only stare dryly at that time.

And Fang Hong is clear that he can definitely do it technically, so he naturally has to prepare in advance.

After all, such a large-scale budget investment, only fifteen years, think about it, in fact, it is not cost-effective, but it can be renewed for fifteen years and a total of thirty years, even if it can continue to renew the life of the survey telescope, it is not necessary, because at that time there will definitely be more advanced technology, and this old antique will be eliminated from the technical point of view.

At that time, the best outcome should have been to transport it back and put it on display in the Astronomy Museum.

……

Monday, November 28.

The Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) held a press conference this morning to officially announce the approval of the funding plan for the new scientific research project "Survey Space Telescope".

According to the spokesman's disclosure, the project is planned to be formally established in early 2012 next year, and is expected to be launched around 2O2O, which will take about eight to nine years, and the budget required for the project is 5.5 billion yuan in the first phase, and the total budget is 75 billion to 100 billion yuan.

When the spokesperson of the Natural Science Foundation disclosed the budget size at the press conference, all the media reporters in the audience were in an uproar, and even one of them had a problem with his ears and heard it wrong.

How much will it cost to get a telescope?

The scale of domestic investment in the aerospace field for a whole year is only 100 million, and your entire telescope will cost 100 billion yuan?

It's outrageous!

Do you want to be so willful?

The news was quickly brought into the public eye through various media reports, and it also attracted huge attention for a while, and the controversy also came as scheduled.

I don't understand!

The public completely does not understand that it costs so much money to get a telescope? Where did the money go?

But the Natural Science Foundation doesn't explain too much.

The domestic astronomical community and even the international astronomical community have exploded with the announcement of this news, and foreign media are also competing to cite the report, which has caused a huge sensation in the global astronomical academic community.

The budget size reached 75 billion to 100 billion yuan, which is 11.8 billion to 15.7 billion U.S. dollars excluding exchange rate changes.

This number is incredible even for foreigners.

As a research scholar engaged in this field, I feel both incredible and excited.

……