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Re:The $11B Webb telescope aims to probe the early universe by wolverine876 on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @05:01PM (#29491121)
> If someone were to start right now a JWT project, there's a realistic chance they'll finish it in a tenth of the time and a tenth of the cost

What is your basis for saying that 90% of the cost and time was due to folding mirrors? That sounds like the easy part - it's mechanical, and satellites have been unfolding in orbit for a long time.

Re:The $11B Webb telescope aims to probe the early universe by adgjlsfhk1 on Thursday December 09, 2021 @02:51PM (#29502058)
With unfolding mirrors, the hard part isn't the unfolding, it's unfolding with micrometer accuracy since you care about the optical properties of the unfolded mirrors.