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That is an interesting choice for a counter example, because when I think of Hubble I think of failed gyroscopes. Hubble has required 5 servicing missions and always seems to be at risk of moving from a state of crippled-but-still-useful to flat-out-busted-forever. Look at the program's weekly observation logs, keep an eye on the file size - the interesting ones are smaller than average. Gyros and safemode. If you suddenly feel the urge to blurt out "Bbut funding and politics!", then consider my point proven - a Moon based telescope would be far more vulnerable to such externalities.

https://www.stsci.edu/ftp/observing/weekly_timeline/




A telescope on the moon will not need any gyroscopes. The first Hubble visit was to fix a manufacturing/testing flaw impossible in a radio telescope.

Arecibo's failure would also be impossible, as there is no oxidation and no weather on the moon. The only likely failure mode would be from metal fatigue as a consequence of temperature swings, but they are 100% predictable.

Maybe you are not aware of the very large difference between an optical telescope and a radio telescope? Optical telescopes always have many precision moving parts. Radio telescopes often have none at all.

Anyway, in ten years, given promised SpaceX Starship progress, a visit will be much cheaper than a single Shuttle visit to ISS. Probably such progress will end up turning on thousands of heat-shield tiles not each needing a diaper change after each flight, as the current design seems to require.




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