Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

phys.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 165 posts

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#101

Post by btkramer9 »

AWildC182 wrote: post #66
Damorian wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just adding on to this. The government funded research labs and DoD contractors I've had offers from have been seriously sad, which makes me concerned on the quality of their missions, personally. Also it's frustrating because I'd much rather work in that space. I'm a senior dev making ~140k and was just offered 80k in a higher cost of living to manage a team of 10 developers with TS clearance working on spy satellit…

That's really weird... I made more than that as a jr engineer doing imaging satellite flight software. Most of us are over 100k in the Denver area.

Can you name companies?

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#102

Post by rbanffy »

java-man wrote: post #87
neurostimulant wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a project this magnitude, I think they should build a spare telescope or two to account for launch failures. Or is it not how the space industry operates?

exactly my sentiment! why not build two, given the fact that most of the budget is likely to be R&D costs.

Manufacture, certification and launch are still quite expensive. You'd easily run a couple extra billions building a fleet.

Having said that, I'd be delighted to have a fleet of them.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#103

Post by ethbro »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #97
lostmyoldone wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise. My train of thought goes like "So what if it fails? There's a lot of money sunk into that! Well, maybe someone would actually decide it's worth going to the L2 to fix it, wouldn't that be cool!!" So yeah, not the only idiot...

We would probably do this robotically.

"What do we do when the robotic satellite fails?"

"Send another robot!"

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#104

Post by sigstoat »

afpx wrote: post #14
nn3 wrote: post #9

At this price point it better be good. It has to make up for all the other astrophysics missions it killed with its (near) endless budget overruns.

That's a bit cynical. There are many examples of NASA missions that had far exceeded the original expectations.

> There are many examples of NASA missions that had far exceeded the original expectations.

many of those concocted by NASA announcing artificially low public expectations, while ensuring the contractors know what the real (much higher) expectations are.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#105

Post by rbanffy »

mdorazio wrote: post #38
jcadam wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a bit of warning: Software Engineering in Aerospace is NOT fun. You're basically in a supporting role to the hardware and system engineers designing the spacecraft. It's pure drudgery... process to the point of absurdity, specs and tasks being spoon fed to you with little room for creativity and/or problem solving, etc. The pay, benefits, and level of respect on the job reflect all of that. If you really want to…

To be fair, the reason for this is that if you try to be creative and don't follow strict processes, things fail a million miles from Earth or blow up entirely.

I really like building software that's rock solid. I never did aerospace systems, but I'm sure I'd be happy in that space.

Sadly, no need to fly me to the hardware to apply patches... :-(

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#106

Post by mikeash »

lostmyoldone wrote: post #46
escapecharacter wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the giddy idiot in me just gets excited about the urgent need for a human L2 mission to fix it.

Likewise. My train of thought goes like "So what if it fails? There's a lot of money sunk into that! Well, maybe someone would actually decide it's worth going to the L2 to fix it, wouldn't that be cool!!" So yeah, not the only idiot...

If SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy (née BFR) actually pans out, it should be able to easily perform this mission.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#107

Post by sigstoat »

skizm wrote: post #34

Anyone know if there are any well paying jobs in space programs of any kind? I've been seeing a growing number of reputable universities offering a wider range of space / aerospace / engineering offerings* and I've been getting curious what's out there. Only issue is, a lot of places I looked pay well below market rates :/ (at least for software engineers). I'll admit my expectations might be off considering I've bee…

> Only issue is, a lot of places I looked pay well below market rates :/ (at least for software engineers)

aerospace places tend to just have one engineering rate, and it's dominated by what aerospace engineering graduates cost. which is less than what software folks cost.

aerospace graduates are all high on hubble pictures and "we're doing spaaaaace!", so they charge way less.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#108

Post by redisman »

okket wrote: post #16
maxxxxx wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering how much camera sensors have improved in the last few years I wonder how outdated these sensors are (or not) Edit: makes me also wonder if with all the delays they upgrade any equipment in the meantime.

Hard to tell, since you can't use off-the-shelf sensors. They have to withstand the harsh environment in space, for a very long time, without any maintenance.

"Only" about 10 years. This has a very complicated orbit and needs to use fuel to adjust and stay on it.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#109

Post by ethbro »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #55
petschge wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the 10 missions before Apollo 11: It's a little more complicated. Apollo 1 is the name that was given to honor the astronauts who died in the pad accident. Apollo 2 and 3 didn't exists. But a whole bunch of other tests did exist testing Saturn 5 before we got to the unmanned Apollo 4, 5 and 6 tests. And starting with Apollo 7 humans were included. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_missions fo…

I probably should have known this. I've read alot on Apollo, but never really internalized some of these facts.

People forget there was an entire series leading up to the Saturn V: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V#Saturn_development

They've got a Saturn IB at an Alabama rest stop outside of Huntsville. Surprisingly small, but still towers above you!

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#110

Post by GlenTheMachine »

ethbro wrote: post #103
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We would probably do this robotically.

"What do we do when the robotic satellite fails?" "Send another robot!"

https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/restore-L.html

also

https://www.darpa.mil/program/robotic-servicing-of-geosynchr...

Post reply on HN