Assembly in Outer Space

One thing that has never failed to pay dividends is so called "pure research". Look at how the space program of the 60's has paid off. You can hardly look at anything in the modern world and not see something that was brought into existence through NASA funded research.

The Hubble space telescope cost more than $2.5 billion to construct and will have a total cost of around $6 billion before the end of it's service lifetime, and I defy anyone to claim that it was not money well spent. In fact, it is absolutely criminal that it cannot be saved and kept in service, or returned home to be placed on display in the Smithsonian.

The Webb, which is going to have five times the light gathering power of the Hubble, will enable us to see things we've never even imagined as yet. No one can possibly say what discoveries it will make possible. Yes, it will be costly. But, it will be worth it.

No doubt. Just what was observed from the Shoemaker-Levy comet and Jupiter. Total unexpected.

But that is the problem. when one can not present what you could gain but can not describe the unimagiginable to the stubborn community who can only see what is at the end of thier nose.

Even the derivatives of such projects.

But what happened like the Shoemaker-Levy comet help reinforce this research.

p911

My thoughts exactly! Granted, retrieval might be a costly chore, but really? We're going to let it burn up on reentry? We have the Enola Gay hanging in the Smithsonian for cyrin' out loud.

"Do you believe that seeing back to the dawn of time or searching for life on other planets is the worth the exorbitant project costs?"

That depends on what we find. If we find nothing then no it is not worth the cost. Otherwise the answer might be yes.

Ask the question again when the project is complete and then we can do an effective cost analysis.

Maybe we can compare this cost analysis to what we could have done for global warming if we had spent the money there.

Is it worth the cost to see back to the dawn of time?

I think that is the wrong question.

What we will gain is a big leap in knowledge in handling the design and putting it up there.

If previous projects are any guide, the spin off from the new design, manufacturing and installation techniques will pay for itself umpteen times over for years to come. Of course NASA won't reap the benefit, everyone else will.

We will also gain new insights into the universe, but you can't really put a value on that. Could be of immense importance, may not be much (I doubt the latter) but you can't put a meaningful payback figure on pure research, except in hindsight.

The spin offs from doing the job will give paybacks (mainly only with hindsight) which will ultimately vastly outweigh the cost of doing the job.

Unfortunately the bean counters want an estimate beforehand, and there is no meaningful way of doing that.

From past experience, we do know it is likely to be much bigger than we now anticipate.

Is it worth the cost to see back to the dawn of time?

and your response

I think that is the wrong question.

Thats true, but I believe they were giving a reference on the power