Supporters of the James Webb Space Telescope united today (Sept. 21) to advocate for the ambitious project, despite its increasing costs and repeated delays.
Some of the project's staunchest supporters, including the telescope's senior project scientist and NASA's program director for the mission, made the case for James Web during a web conference hosted by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., which will serve as the Science and Operations Center for JWST.
"I invite people to try and imagine today where astronomy would be without Hubble, because my expectation is that JWST will be transformative in a very similar way," said Roberto Abraham?, an astronomer at the University of Toronto. "When I think about where I would be and where my field would be without Hubble, I want to run away screaming. I just can't conceive of giving up that sort of capability with JWST for the future."
Yet we'll spend $100 million for a high security prison in Afghanistan. What's wrong with this picture? To read the rest of the article, click here.