To my surprise and elation, the Webb Space Telescope is going to work
Since the JWST design started, there's been a revolution in the "easiness" of launches.I wonder if a future evolution of space telescopes will be some kind of interferometric (obviously extremely hard for IR or visible light, but easier for radio and microwaves) swarm of cheap semi-disposible telescopes than one enormous one.Then you can add to the swarm, upgrade elements, and retire failed elements without having to eat a multi-billion helping of humble pie.And rather than have a fearsomely complex integrated sunshield, you could have a similar swarm of simpler satellites that provide a large cool area at L2, and then the observers just need to handle their own heat.I suppose this could be described as microservices...in spaaaaace. Draw what parallels you will from that!