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From: gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Cost of telescope storage?
Message-ID: <31080@prls.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 90 17:50:47 GMT
References: <162.UUL1.3#5131@mvac23.UUCP> <1990Jan28.010857.19425@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: gordon@prls.UUCP (Gordon Vickers)
Organization: Philips Research Labs, Sunnyvale, California
Lines: 25

In article <1990Jan28.010857.19425@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
  ( in reply to a previous article by another    -gpv)
>
>Basically, it was designed for space (occasional micrometeorites, the
>barest wisp of atmosphere, lots of sunlight) and not for Earth (thick
>wet air with all kinds of icky things drifting and/or flying in it).
>NASA is understandably paranoid about contaminating the optics with,
>well, almost anything.  They cost a *bundle*.
>-- 

        I have a freind involved with this project and have heard him
   talk about the high cost of maintaining the clean room so the
   optics won't get contaminated.

        What makes me laugh is it is only a class 10,000 clean room 
   ( maximum allowed contamination 10,000 parts per million) !  For
   such a wonderfull telescope, I think its a real shame their contamination
   standards are so lax.  In this day and age, a class 1000 clean room
   isn't difficult to acheive ; class 10 requiring state of the art.

 
Gordon Vickers 408/991-5370, at Signetics  (Sunnyvale, California, USA )
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