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Re:Astronomers push for global debate on giant satellite swarms by asaddhamani on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @12:28PM (#27895867)
My point is that not every use case is viable for space telescopes due to cost, next to impossible repairs, required technology, etc. They can't replace ground based observations completely.
Re:Astronomers push for global debate on giant satellite swarms by Robotbeat on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @01:27PM (#27896603)
Starship (which will get its bread and butter from Starlink) actually WOULD enable much cheaper space telescopes, cheaper repairs and maintain by astronauts. Starlink satellites themselves are very inexpensive and show there’s no fundamental reason why space hardware MUST be extremely expensive compared to ground hardware.

Space telescopes could actually be cheaper than ground telescopes if SpaceX succeeds in reducing cost of human spaceflight to their goals. Space telescopes don’t need massive structures to keep the mirror from deforming under gravity, they don’t need advanced adaptive optics to adjust for seeing, they can point almost anywhere in the sky and can observe objects day and night without weather or seasonal concerns.