NASA gets two military spy telescopes for astronomy

So the "Secret space program got some new toy and give some old stuff to NASA www.washingtonpost.com....

First question i got when they will up here working. And what this secret program got better to leave these telescope to NASA

reply to post by Dolby_X


Good catch Dolby!!

This first quote from your link is priceless IMO:

The U.S. government’s secret space program has decided to give NASA two telescopes as big as, and even more powerful than, the Hubble Space Telescope.

That confirms two things-That there is a secret space program?(ok we knew that).
And that their tech is ahead of the stuff civilians build.
Better that Hubble?
Wow...I can but imagine.

Many whistle blowers and researchers have long stated that secret black budget tech is way ahead of our civilian tech.
Interesting stuff...makes you wonder what they have replaced it with-it must be uber amazing if they are just giving these scopes to NASA.

S+F

Yup, militarized space was the worst decision ever. I believe Hoover even said that.

As for this, Hubble is'nt all that powerful anymore, however, the military will only give away tech when they get better tech. I wonder how powerful the military space agency is.

reply to post by Dolby_X


This News is Huge!

The U.S. government’s secret space program has decided to give NASA two telescopes as big as, and even more powerful than, the Hubble Space Telescope.

Designed for surveillance, the telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office were no longer needed for spy missions and can now be used to study the heavens.

They have 2.4-meter (7.9 feet) mirrors, just like the Hubble. They also have an additional feature that the civilian space telescopes lack: A maneuverable secondary mirror that makes it possible to obtain more focused images. These telescopes will have 100 times the field of view of the Hubble, according to David Spergel, a Princeton astrophysicist and co-chair of the National Academies advisory panel on astronomy and astrophysics.

S&F

The main mirror is the same size as Hubble so it would have the same maximum diffraction limited image, just a wider field of view.

It still goes to show that even the government can't read newspaper headlines from space.

The Hubble has a angular resolution of 0.05 arcseconds which translates to approximately 30 cm from about 600 km up.

The best we see on google earth is 50 cm, so this would be much higher. Secondly if the USAF is getting a better one, this means their main mirror might be larger and I suspect a resolution in the rage of 20 cm approximately.

Originally posted by Arken
reply to post by Dolby_X

 

This News is Huge!

The U.S. government’s secret space program has decided to give NASA two telescopes as big as, and even more powerful than, the Hubble Space Telescope.

Designed for surveillance, the telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office were no longer needed for spy missions and can now be used to study the heavens.

They have 2.4-meter (7.9 feet) mirrors, just like the Hubble. They also have an additional feature that the civilian space telescopes lack: A maneuverable secondary mirror that makes it possible to obtain more focused images. These telescopes will have 100 times the field of view of the Hubble, according to David Spergel, a Princeton astrophysicist and co-chair of the National Academies advisory panel on astronomy and astrophysics.

S&F

Take whats said with a pinch of salt, 100 times field of view means it could photograph the sky in a fewer number of pictures. It would speed up whole sky surveys etc but what you see depends on the instruments at the end of the telescope.

reply to post by THE_PROFESSIONAL

It sounds like the only real difference between Hubble and the spy telescopes is the ability to change the location of the secondary mirror and thus change the focal length, giving them a "zoom" ability (that would be the "more powerful" part of the description). However, as you point out, since the primary mirror is the same size as that of Hubble they won't really be any better at astronomical observation. Just nice replacements or supplements.

reply to post by Phage


Great observation, yea added zoom ability is a great addition. We will have to wait till they release the first sample images. I hope they don't down-sample on purpose to give us false information hehe

reply to post by Phage


Plus I guarantee you that it also has image stacking capability built into the system since it was originally designed to see through the atmosphere so we are thinking software enhanced resolution..

Indeed this is very interesting, but not for the obvious reasons.

Since this pretty much confirms the secret space program is way better funded than NASA, having the ability to afford letting some "old tech" go in the form of 2 space telescopes outclassing even hubble... one can not help to wonder what they have that is so superior to these right now that they can simply "give them away".

And not only in the telescope area either...

What else do they have of such superior tech-level that they are still withholding from the public? (That pays their wages)

Indeed, there is no wonder why the NASA budget was so drastically cut, they simply are not needed since they have another "secret branch" that are doing pretty much the same things, only they are vastly ahead not only in hardware, but probably in most other areas as well... And they are already being funded very well indeed. By the black budget.

Of course this is all something most of us already know...

double post, delete.

IF you think there will be an impending use of a nuclear weapon in space to neutralize satellites.....


I'd hand over 2 expensive "telescopes" to NASA too......you can claim their loss when you're claiming "Reparations" from China!

I see this as an impending use of nukes in Space in self defense by China.

Interesting! S&F.


So can you imagine their new toys!?

100 times the field of view of the Hubble,

This does show that NASA is enormously underfunded

reply to post by sevensheeps

Not really. Hubble was not cheap. I doubt these telescopes cost much more.

Hubble is "fixed" with a zoomed in view for maximum resolution. This means that it has a narrow field of view.
The spy satellites can "zoom" out for a wider field of view at lower resolution.

Originally posted by THE_PROFESSIONAL
reply to post by Phage

 

Plus I guarantee you that it also has image stacking capability built into the system since it was originally designed to see through the atmosphere so we are thinking software enhanced resolution..

Actually, it doesn't have any capability. What they're offering is essentially the optical tube and mirrors. It's up to NASA to come up with the imaging sensors. It would be like someone giving you a camera lens. You still need a camera body to do anything with it.

Originally posted by THE_PROFESSIONAL
reply to post by Phage

 

Plus I guarantee you that it also has image stacking capability built into the system since it was originally designed to see through the atmosphere so we are thinking software enhanced resolution..

Well telescopes on the ground HAVE to look through the atmosphere any software linked to this will most likely be on the ground after pictures have been received.

Originally posted by sevensheeps
Interesting! S&F.


So can you imagine their new toys!?

100 times the field of view of the Hubble,

This does show that NASA is enormously underfunded

edit on 4/6/12 by sevensheeps because: Update

Yes, public NASA is enormously underfunded deliberately. Space exploration is a Military matter.

The "Secret Space Program", otherwise, collect several Billions from the federal "Black Budget".