Question

Imagine you are part of a NASA project that is going to fund one telescope project. You have many proposals in front of you to evaluate. You have been told to use the following criteria to evaluate the proposals:

• Some telescopes have to be placed in space because the Earth's atmosphere does not allow all electromagnetic wavelengths to reach the Earth's surface. (You may wish to re-read the lecture notes in this module so you know which wavelength regions reach the ground before you submit your original post.)
• It is more important to collect light at all wavelengths in a particular region of the electromagnetic spectrum - Example 1: when choosing between a ground-based visible light telescope and a ground-based infrared telescope, the visible light telescope would be preferred since it can capture all visible wavelengths or Example 2: when choosing between a ground-based telescope and a space-based telescope, the telescope that will capture more of the wavelength region it will operate in is to be chosen e.g. e.g. a space-based UV telescope would capture all UV wavelengths and would be preferred over a ground-based UV telescope, which would capture only a small fraction of UV wavelengths.
• It is much more expensive to construct and operate a telescope in space compared to a ground-based telescope. As mentioned above, this is to be given lower priority when choosing between a ground-based telescope project and a space-based telescope project. If one is choosing between two space-based projects, then the telescope operating at wavelengths that cannot be seen from the ground needs to be chosen.

Which of the following projects would you choose to fund given the criteria above? Include reasons for your answer. You must use the criteria given above to arrive at your chosen project; you cannot change or add criteria. If you have questions contact your instructor well before October 17 so she has time to respond.

Project Lambda: An ultraviolet light telescope to be placed on a high mountain in Chile to study stars and search for planets.

Project Delta: A X-ray telescope to be placed in space (in orbit around the Earth) to study far away galaxies.

Project Omega: A radio telescope in the desert in New Mexico to search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Answer 1