One of the two spy satellite telescopes that recently fell into NASA's lap may eventually make its way to the Red Planet.

The space agency is currently mulling potential uses for the two space telescopes, which were donated by the National Reconnaissance Office and are comparable in size and appearance to NASA's venerable Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

Some scientists have proposed sending one of the powerful telescopes to Mars orbit, where it could look both up and down, giving researchers great views of the Red Planet's surface as well as targets in the outer solar system and beyond. [Declassified U.S. Spy Satellites (Gallery)]

"We're probably not going to get a replacement for HST with UV/visible [light] and a big telescope for use at Mars," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, leader of the proposed Mars Orbiting Space Telescope, or MOST. "So this is trying to do two things with one mission."

An unexpected gift

The two donated telescopes were apparently built for a National Reconnaissance Office program called Future Imagery Architecture, which was terminated in 2005.

NASA announced in June 2012 that it had acquired the instruments, which are designed to have a much wider field of view than Hubble, despite sporting Hubble-like 8-foot-wide (2.4 meters) main mirrors.

In November, the space agency asked scientists to suggest potential uses for the NRO scopes, which are basically just primary and secondary mirrors, with no instruments attached. More than 60 serious proposals came flooding in, 33 of which including MOST were presented in early February at the Study on Applications of Large Space Optics (SALSO) workshop in Huntsville, Ala.

Hubble Quiz: Do You Know the Famous Space Telescope?

Hubble has revolutionized astronomers' understanding of the universe since its April 1990 launch. Test your knowledge of the telescope in this quiz.

Originally posted here:

NASA May Launch Donated Spy Satellite Telescope to Mars