XPost: sci.space.policy   
   From: mikecombs@nospam.com_chg_nospam_2_ti.retro.com   
      
    wrote in message   
   news:1108941878.780319.37180@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...   
   >   
   > With a reasonable space based industry, moon mining, metal working,   
   > aluminium and glass production, precision engineering, how big an   
   > optical telescope could be built in zero-g?   
   >   
   > What are the limits? Could a 100m diameter optical telescope be built?   
   > what would it see?   
      
   I remember Gerard O'Neill (of High Frontier fame) once wrote a paper on such   
   a concept.  He suggested a vast array of multiple mirror segments 1 meter   
   across each.  He recommended an independent RCS on each segment.  It might   
   seem tempting to just attach them all to some kind of framework, but he   
   insisted that with temperature differences, etc. that would be the last   
   thing you'd want to do.   
      
   I forget now what size array he was talking about, but I remember him saying   
   you would not only be spotting extrasolar planets, you'd be charting weather   
   systems on them.   
      
      
   --   
      
      
   Regards,   
   Mike Combs   
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------   
   Member of the National Non-sequitur Society.  We may not make   
   much sense, but we do like pizza.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)