New telescopse defines NASA future

At first glance, it looks like a space ship landed outside the Long Performance Arts Center, but it's actually a replica of the latest in space observation.

Called the James Webb Space Telescope, it is named after NASA's former administrator. This latest high-tech tool in research was the buzz at the SXSW Interactive NASA space tent on Friday.

"This telescope is the scientific successor to Hubble," said Amber Straugh, an astrophysicist with NASA. "We're building this telescope to answer the big questions that Hubble can't answer. It will be a hundred time more powerful and we'll see awesome things about the universe."

The telescope, which was primarily designed to study the birth and evolution of galaxies and the formation of stars and planets, has now brought awareness to the need for defense research telescopes. This became especially evident after the boom seen around the world last month in Russia.

Earth shattering events like these are part of the reason Congressman Lamar Smith, Chair of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, recently announced a special hearing addressing space threats.

"We need to put up more telescopes both in orbit and on the ground," Smith said, "to be able to detect these objects before they do any grave damage to the earth."

Smith added that space exploration is a little bit like studying history and learning lessons from it.

"We need to continue to explore in space and the best way and quickest way is to look back into space," Smith said. "To see where we came from, see what might come next, be able to learn more not only about ourselves but about what's around us."

SXSW fans were impressed by the advances in space technology.

"I'm astounded, it's been a real eye opener," Rishi Adhaniker said. "It's so cool to see some technology that's so far away you generally don't get to see it just read about it on the web but to experience it almost first hand it's mind-blowing."

"I've been following it a little bit but I wasn't really aware of the details of the technology," Gauray Tembey said. "Just looking at all the presentations out here, it's fantastic."

The telescope is scheduled to launch in 2018 with an estimated budget, upon completion, of $8 billion.