Big telescope projects are vying for philanthropic dollars to gather light and knowledge from the farthest reaches of the universe and compete for the title of being the biggest and the baddest. The Houston Chronicle ran an editorial Thursday about how Texas billionaire George Mitchell is heading up an effort to have Texas A&M and UT Austin help raise the $550 million to build a new 24.6 meter optical telescope in Chile. He has pledged $3.25 million towards the $55 million the universities need to raise to secure 10% of the observing time. The telescope will produce images 10 times sharper then Hubble.
A Californian/Canadian team is also looking at building the next "great telescope." Their plan is to build a Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and announced in December 2007 a $200 million dollar grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation towards the $300 million needed to build the instrument. This telescope is also optical (and infrared), also being built in Chile and will produce images 12 times sharper then Hubble. Each team says their facility will be operational by 2016 or 2017.
Full article here: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/the-race-to-bui.html
-Ryan
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