This is the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope.
It’s going to launch in September.
It cost 4 billion dollars.
It has advanced wide-field imaging capabilities and NASA is bullish it will deepen ...
When I was in college, I worked on the flight array IR detector for the space infrared telescope facility (SIRTF, political name Spitzer Space Telescope), trying to model anti reflective coatings for the viewing window to optimize NIR transmission and trying to get good visible light transmission as well, if possible. Result: it’s theoretically possible, but practically quite costly and not durable.
Now I’m just a stupid radiologist, but I used to be smart :)
Now I’m just a stupid radiologist, but I used to be smart :)