These are the biggest space projects that NASA will accomplish in the next decade

In a report on the most important American space projects to be completed in the next ten years, astronomers called for investment in a new generation of "extremely huge" astronomical observatories much larger than those now on Earth or orbiting in space.

These recommendations were contained in a report issued by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently, based on a survey of the opinions of American astronomers.

This document, which receives the attention of US official circles, sets the priorities for the expensive astronomical projects to be completed over the next decade (2022-2032).

Completing multiple tasks will avoid project delays, as happened with the James Webb Space Observatory (Pixehair).

Adopt multitasking

The report, according to Science News, recommended that NASA adopt a new approach to the development of giant astronomical projects, based on the implementation of multiple tasks at the same time, to avoid the most important obstacles encountered by individual missions today and make them sometimes impractical and very expensive.

“The proposed multitasking program will reshape how major space missions are planned,” Jonathan Fortney, an astrophysicist co-author of the report, told Science News. A single mission takes decades from plan to launch."

Developing multiple missions in parallel will reduce the long wait between launches and avoid significant cost overruns and frequent delays, such as those experienced by the much-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope project.

The Large Magellanic Observatory, together with the Hawaiian Observatory, will form a more sensitive system (the Large Magellanic Observatory)

A space observatory twice as large as Hubble

The first projects proposed by experts in the report were to build a space observatory that monitors the universe at different wavelengths extending from infrared to ultraviolet radiation, a project inspired by a previous program to establish an observatory to explore planets that could harbor a form of life called (HabEx). .

This observatory will fill the void left by the currently operating devices such as the Hubble Space Telescope, which works mainly to capture optical light and ultraviolet rays, and the James Webb telescope, which will see the universe in the infrared field.

This new observatory, with a lens diameter of 6 meters (versus 2.4 meters for Hubble's), can glimpse planets in other star systems that are a tenth of a billion as bright as their stars, as well as observe stars, galaxies and other celestial bodies.

Experts put its estimated cost at $11 billion, and the telescope is scheduled to be launched in 2040.

The proposed projects will allow wider horizons to see more accurate details in the universe (NASA)

Five years after starting work on that first major mission, NASA should, according to the report, begin developing two more far-infrared and X-ray observatories, each costing between $3 billion and $5 billion.

"The far-infrared window into the universe could, for example, help astronomers study the states of water during the formation of planetary systems," Fortney says.

It is also expected that the expected successor to the Chandra X-ray Observatory - who has reached the age of 22 years - will reveal new details of the evolution of galaxies, the behavior of supermassive black holes, and other active phenomena in the universe.

The new network of radio observatories will be more sensitive than the current observatories (NASA)

Ground-based observatories 100 times more powerful

On the ground, the authors of the report propose uniting the efforts of two competing projects, the Giant Magellan Observatory in Chile and the 30-meter Observatory in Hawaii, whose implementation is currently facing widespread controversy.

Once completed, the two observatories equipped with primary collecting mirrors with a diameter of between 25 and 30 meters, will constitute a huge observatory that is about 100 times more sensitive than any telescope currently in operation.

The two new observatories will allow astronomers to take a closer look at the heart of distant galaxies, where supermassive black holes roam, and will allow them to understand many cosmic mysteries such as those related to dark matter, dark energy, and the study of planets around distant stars.

The report also notes that it is time to replace the very large network of radio observatories in New Mexico and those spread across the United States.

Experts suggest the creation of new-generation radio observatories that include more than 260 giant antennas distributed in different regions of North America and are 10 times more sensitive.

Astronomers hope that their new vision will convince decision makers in the United States to provide the necessary budgets for its implementation, especially with the repeated excesses in the cost of previous projects, especially for the James Webb Space Telescope, which will finally be launched next month after years of delays at a cost of 10 billion dollars, although the His estimated budget was only $4.5 billion.