The Quest for Larger, Lighter and More Powerful Telescopes

Advances in materials technologies, computer analysis and controls and the advent of active and adaptive optics have created a revolution in both ground-based and space-based astronomical telescopes. In the 1990's, an explosion of 6m – 10m ground-based telescopes ushered in a new renaissance of observational astronomy. Later this decade, the largest space telescope ever flown in space, the 6.5m James Webb Space Telescope, a Hubble 2.0 will observe the very first galaxies and extra-solar planets.