Schmidt Sciences announces plans for Lazuli, a private space telescope

First private space telescope could launch before end of decade

by nadia drake Edited by Lee Billings

PHOENIX, AZ.—The first space telescope of its kind may soon launch into orbit and potentially pave a new path for astronomy.

It was announced today at a special session of the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Lazuli Space Observatory is a project of schmidt scienceA philanthropic organization created by investor Wendy Schmidt and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “This is the first full-scale observatory that is privately funded in space,” says Stuart Feldman, astronomer, computer scientist and president of Schmidt Sciences. scientific American Before the announcement.

“For 20 years, Eric and I have led philanthropy to seek new frontiers,” Wendy Schmidt said in a statement. “With the Schmidt Observatory system (which includes Lazuli), we are enabling multiple perspectives to understand the vast universe where we find ourselves stewards of a living planet.”

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As envisioned, the telescope would have a three-meter mirror – larger than NASA’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope. Its three instruments – a planet-finding coronagraph, a high-resolution wide-field camera and a light-splitting spectrograph – will study the atmospheres of distant worlds, dissect the light from exploding stars and tackle mysteries such as the nature of dark energy, the mysterious force that drives the rapid expansion of the universe. Lazuli will also be agile; It will be able to rotate fast enough to see things bumping into the cosmic night.

With a rumored price tag of hundreds of millions of dollars, the telescope could launch before the decade is out. And if successful, the achievement could point to a new path to greater achievement in space science. “There are great possibilities here, and it’s exciting to see these new avenues opening up for doing astrophysics,” says the astronomer. Heidi HummelVice President for Science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.

Lazuli is one of several large projects Schmidt Observatory System– an initiative that Feldman describes as “risky but exciting.” All others are ground-based and share a common design element in that they are modular, using hundreds of smaller and relatively low-cost components to create much larger and more capable arrays. one, the Deep Synoptic Arraywill study the sky at radio wavelengths, while its counterpart, Argus ArrayWill observe in visible light. one third small-but-scalable array Will collect spectra of cosmic targets such as exoplanets and supernovae. The goal, Feldman says, is to have each of these projects based on science by 2029.

“They all have deadlines; they all have funding. And by astronomical standards, these things are happening in the blink of an eye,” says Feldman. “We want the data to be available rapidly – ​​and for it to be widely available. It is intended to be a gift to the global astrophysics community.”

Such lavish private funding for pure space science may seem strange, but historically astronomy and astrophysics have been primarily the province of philanthropy. Edwin Hubble worked at a privately funded observatory when his measurements of cosmic distances revealed the expansion of the universe. Percival Lowell built his own mountain peak to search for signs of life on Mars. Even Galileo had his own personal patrons, after whom he initially tried to name four moons of Jupiter. However, after World War II, this model changed. For the past nearly 80 years, support for space science has been dominated by governments through taxpayer-funded institutions such as NASA and the National Science Foundation. In turn, private foundations “began to finance projects that were not appropriate for federal agencies because they were too risky or politically controversial,” says the science historian. Jordan Bimm University of Chicago.

But at least in the US, government support for science has become more volatile and uncertain than ever, leading to a return to greater reliance on private funding.

“We’re absolutely in a moment of change and transformation,” says Bimm. “We’re seeing non-state actors like foundations entering the arena of not only funding interesting things but setting an agenda. That used to be the role of the U.S. government.”

The Schmidt Sciences team says that although the current turmoil over federal science funding was not directly linked to the group’s initiative, it was difficult to ignore. “I think we would operate on this scale regardless, but the current situation certainly forces us to take our mandate more seriously,” says Arpita RoyDirector of Astrophysics and Space for Schmidt Sciences.

As rumors of Schmidt’s announcement spread at the AAS meeting, astronomers expressed excitement about the new initiatives — and also some concerns.

Some researchers have questions about who will have access to the facilities and data. And some wondered whether the large influx of private money could lead to further cuts in taxpayer funding. The Schmidt Sciences team is adamant that it is not trying to compete with governments. “We’re not replacing NSF or NASA or the European agencies. We’re trying to fill areas they’re not really designed for and invest in that,” says Feldman.

In other words, billion dollar projects like NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope And Habitable Worlds Observatory Or large, ground-based observatories are still within the scope of the public sector. Beam says it remains to be seen how such private investments will play out. “If you want to work in space, you have to get money from somewhere,” says Bimm. “But the flip side of this is this: That source of money also determines what we learn.” “Who is providing funding can determine what we want to learn about, how we choose to learn about it, and perhaps who benefits in the end.”

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