NASA's Virtual Telescope: CANYVAL-X

Now if Tom would just move out of the way so Jerry can see the Sun.

I was thinking the same thing! Why didn't they just put a small chain between them?

But no, we're NASA, we have to do everything the hard way!

Why, when you can use...

A single chain wouldn't suffice. You'd need three for correct alignment and what if one got twisted?

Then Tom would be looking out the side of Jerry's eye?

I bet they could have easily accomplished th alignment with a single extension arm, pantograph, telescoping, whatever.

That would defeat the purpose of the mission. If they are going to make a large virtual telescope out of more than one satellite, I doubt 2 would be an ideal number, and I suspect distances might be larger eventually.

Anyway, they are likely testing the alignment the system so that they can send up multiple small satellites to make a huge virtual telescope.

That does sound more like it, at least one could obtain a large aperture as well as large focal distance that way.

From the article: for example, an instrument on one satellite could block the glare of the sun or a distant star, making it possible for a camera on the other to image faint objects such as the sun's ghostly corona or exoplanets orbiting a star.

This won't even be a functional telescope. It's just a "proof of concept" before they try it for real.

Yep. This thing has the effective aperture of a 10-metre telescope, but not the light-gathering ability. Imagine placing an opaque cover over one of the 10-metre Keck telescopes and then poking two small holes to admit light, one on either side. That's basically what they've got here, or would have if the interferometer components were present. PoC only.

Proof of concept, wow. How much does that cost?

Sounds about as fun as a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and can probably see about as well.

How much? El cheapo. About a million bucks - a lot cheaper than lofting a fully functional telescope based on this idea and finding the setup doesn't work the way they had planned.

Oh no, that could never happen!

Something tells me Perkin-Elmer isn't in the space-telescope-mirror biz anymore.

The most expensive washer of all time.....

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/an-ingenius-fix-for-hubbles-famously-flawed-vision/