We will soon be able to resolve Mars microbes from orbit.;-)

[exoscientist]

On another space oriented forum I noted: <br /><br />"It took 20 years to increase the resolution by a factor or 10 over <br />Viking with the Mars Global Surveyor mission. But only 10 years to <br />increase the resolution over that of MGS by a factor of 10 with Mars <br />Reconnassance Orbiter. <br />Could we increase the resolution over MRO by another factor of 10 to, <br />gulp, 3 cm per pixel in only 5 years this time?" <br /><br /><br /> Funny though, that rather off-the-cuff estimate of mine is close to <br />what is possible. <br />To resolve 3 cm in the optical from say a 300 km orbit would require a <br />6 meter mirror. The James Webb Space Telescope will have a 6.5 meter <br />mirror and is scheduled for launch in 2013. But it was originally <br />scheduled for launch in 2011: <br /><br /><br />James Webb Space Telescope. <br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope <br /><br /><br /> So going by this rate, it'll be 3mm/pixel 2.5 years after that, and <br />300 microns 1.25 years after that, and ... <br /> Hmm, in less than a decade then we should be able to resolve microbes <br />from space. <br /><br /><br /> Admittedly though, the JWST is a 4 billion dollar mission. Also it <br />uses a beryllium metal mirror for infrared astronomy only. The <br />beryllium makes the mirror lightweight but it is unclear if you can <br />achieve the much more stringent smoothness requirements at optical <br />wavelengths with a metal mirror. <br /> As for the data storage and transmission of the large files for such <br />high resolution images, data storage capacity and costs are doubling <br />and halving each year, respectively: <br /><br /><br />Bye-bye hard drive, hello flash. <br />By Michael Kanellos <br />Staff Writer, CNET News.com <br />Published: January 4, 2006, 10:00 AM PST <br />"Currently, NAND chips double in memory density every year. The <br />cutting-edge 4-gigabit chips of 2005, for example, <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[bonzelite]

boggling. <br /><br />i'm all for privatization of space industries, including major missions to the planets.

 

[vogon13]

Even the thin air of Mars will limit the maximum resolution observable on the surface from a space based mirror, regardless of its' size.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>