[Young Werther]

Orbit a dozen or so Hubbles and space them a couple thousand miles apart. They would form an excellent long baseline interferomerter and we would then be able to resolve the weather patterns on those planets that revolve around those stars in the neighborhood. A Scientific American article in the early 90s postulated such a scope.

[RightWhale]

One of the planetfinder designs being built is something like that, I think. An array of detectors with a good baseline.

[F16Fighter]

"Orbit a dozen or so Hubbles and space them a couple thousand miles apart...we would then be able to resolve the weather patterns on those planets that revolve around those stars in the neighborhood. "

Nice investment.

How about if the U.S. Treasury merely bulldozes about $20 billion into the middle of the desert and creates the world's largest bonfire?