Billionaire backers have already taken the launch sector by storm. Now, one is getting into the space-science game.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced late Wednesday that Schmidt Sciences, one of his philanthropies, would build the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System.
“Astronomy is ripe for new ideas, and we are working with scientists globally to build four new telescopes—one in space, three on the ground!” Schmidt wrote on X.
Guiding light: Schmidt Sciences aims to approach observatories in a fundamentally different way than the decades-long, multi-billion-dollar, government-driven programs of the past that produced the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. The ethos of the project falls into four pillars:
- Moving faster and accepting more risk;
- Incorporating modular designs to save money;
- Allowing global access to data and software;
- Collaborating with international partners on science.
Look up: The Lazuli Space Observatory—the in-space asset being developed by the group—is expected to host a 3-meter mirror. The project is aiming, at least initially, to snap photos within four hours of the telescope being tasked—a metric that officials hope will drop to 90 minutes, according to the website. It will also be able to watch targets for up to 12 hours at a time.
The telescope is expected to use 80% commercial off-the-shelf parts and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Space News—an order of magnitude less than NASA-led telescopes. The outlet also reported that Lazuli could launch as early as mid-2028.
Context: The investment represents the latest step in the private sector picking up the mantle on space science, which was once solely the purview of government agencies. Another example is Rocket Lab’s private mission to look for signs of microbial life in the clouds of Venus.
