11–20 of 301 posts
Such an exciting, and high stakes, and dramatically late and over-budget mission.
Edit: Downvotes with no comments as to why... This thing is 24 years in development and 20x over budget. If thats not a failure of government contracting, budgeting, etc then idk what is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope#Cos... - Obviously the platform will be cool once they get it launched, but until then its just a money pit.
Going to be amazing if this thing can actually unfurl, but I'm scared.
Same feelings here! Ever since it was announced I have been anxious about it all going to plan. Sometimes I put myself in the shoes of the engineers and controllers, and I can’t imagine how nerve wracking it must be, waiting and waiting! The thing could simply blow up on the launch pad, for goodness sake!
exactly, I’ve wondered why they don’t build e.g. 2 or 3 of them in tandem since it’d likely be cheaper/easier to do up front vs after the fact if things went wrong. They would then have the additional telescopes if things went right, offering even greater access.
Such an exciting, and high stakes, and dramatically late and over-budget mission.
I was just watching YT channel “Primitive Technology” and it really puts things into perspective. From sticks and stones to bootstrapping a James Webb Telescope that’s gonna sit at a langrange point between the Earth and the Sun. Woah.
Such an exciting, and high stakes, and dramatically late and over-budget mission.
Government red tape and contracting at its finest Edit: Downvotes with no comments as to why... This thing is 24 years in development and 20x over budget. If thats not a failure of government contracting, budgeting, etc then idk what is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope#Cos... - Obviously the platform will be cool once they get it launched, but until then its just a money pit.
Edit: what’s with the downvotes? I would like to understand what the disagreement is here. Any gov program can be split up into two parts. One, the actual cost as dictated by the market economy, and second, the additional costs for delays, bureaucracy, etc which usually tends to be multiples of the actual costs. This money goes into paying salaries without actually making any progress. Hence the jobs program. What’s there to disagree here? Is this argument somehow belonging to a particular political spectrum? Downvotes are fine but I’d like to gain some understanding of where my thoughts are not aligned with you. Please explain your position.
Does anyone remember the initial proposals for this. The cost was supposed to be $500M. At most something like $1B. Given this is standard govt contracting - I'm sure it's come out much higher.
Does anyone remember the initial proposals for this. The cost was supposed to be $500M. At most something like $1B. Given this is standard govt contracting - I'm sure it's come out much higher.
When you are engineering a unit of 1 pushing the boundaries of science, with multiple conflicting constraints, funded by a variety of self-interested stakeholders, and are forced to do commercial production, rather than govt production, even when it is most cost effective, it isn't like you are heading towards lowest cost, technically acceptable.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same feelings here! Ever since it was announced I have been anxious about it all going to plan. Sometimes I put myself in the shoes of the engineers and controllers, and I can’t imagine how nerve wracking it must be, waiting and waiting! The thing could simply blow up on the launch pad, for goodness sake!
> The thing could simply blow up on the launch pad, for goodness sake! exactly, I’ve wondered why they don’t build e.g. 2 or 3 of them in tandem since it’d likely be cheaper/easier to do up front vs after the fact if things went wrong. They would then have the additional telescopes if things went right, offering even greater access.
For an observational/capability platform such as for DoD or NOAA, making a large number in a series makes sense. For a research platform (NASA/NSF) that same idea doesn't apply, since science objectives dominate the discussion.
Going to be amazing if this thing can actually unfurl, but I'm scared.
I really hope not, obviously, but this seems like an All Your Eggs In One Basket lesson in the making.
We need to commodify this tech, make them somewhat disposable, and sent oodles of them up on Starships.
Such an exciting, and high stakes, and dramatically late and over-budget mission.
It blows my mind that humans can get together and build something like this. I was just watching YT channel “Primitive Technology” and it really puts things into perspective. From sticks and stones to bootstrapping a James Webb Telescope that’s gonna sit at a langrange point between the Earth and the Sun. Woah.
Going to be amazing if this thing can actually unfurl, but I'm scared.
Same feelings here! Ever since it was announced I have been anxious about it all going to plan. Sometimes I put myself in the shoes of the engineers and controllers, and I can’t imagine how nerve wracking it must be, waiting and waiting! The thing could simply blow up on the launch pad, for goodness sake!
https://spacenews.com/bad-coordinates-led-ariane-5-astray-la...
(OTOH, I'm positive that particular issue won't reoccur)