Wouldn it be better to fly a number of smaller missions instead of one big mission?
Science goals and their associated measurement requirements ultimately define mission sizes. For some science questions the appropriate mission size is large, for others smaller missions will suffice. The 2000 decadal survey defined a number of scientific challenges some of which required technically ambitious missions. JWST was the top-ranked priority in the 2000 Decadal Survey. It addresses science that cannot be done by any other means. The balance between big and small missions is the result of prioritization in the Decadal Survey and NASA’s implementation strategy. Historical publication and citation rates of the Great Observatories, as well as flagship Solar System missions like Cassini and Galileo, show that they are extremely productive facilities, enabling thousands of scientists to do forefront research with state-of-the-art instrumentation. • Will JWST be reviewed in the Decadal Survey? The formal answer to this question is “No” as the guidelines for the survey remove from r
