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James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

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Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#131

Post by leephillips »

sillyquiet wrote: post #64

I think Destin of the Smarter Every Day YT channel had an interview a couple years ago with Dr. John Mather, the senior project scientist of the JWST, where he asked something like "will you be nervous during the launch and deployments", and Dr. Mather replied " I don't get anxious about stuff I can't deal with", and that they've tested everything they thought of to test. I was super impressed with Dr. Mather, not on…

Well, Dr Mather surely had no idea who I was when I was researching my article on the JWST, but he was generous with his time and thoughts.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/03/meet-the-largest-sci...

Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#132

Post by JaimeThompson »

samstave wrote: post #56
PinkMilkshake wrote: post #3

I'm a little embarrassed to say this and I don't know exactly what I pictured in my head, but I had no idea these telescopes were so big[1]. I guess I never saw one pictured next to a human. I've only seen pictures of satellites being worked on so I expected something more human sized? It seems so stupid now, especially since earth telescopes are huge. [1] https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a013500/a013522/JWST_v.…

May I please subscribe to the raw images of ANY space telescope... I mean * WE* /paid/ for them... I would like to access the data provided in real-time. Where can one get the raw images?

Give https://api.nasa.gov/ a look.

Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#133

Post by lolive »

PinkMilkshake wrote: post #3

I'm a little embarrassed to say this and I don't know exactly what I pictured in my head, but I had no idea these telescopes were so big[1]. I guess I never saw one pictured next to a human. I've only seen pictures of satellites being worked on so I expected something more human sized? It seems so stupid now, especially since earth telescopes are huge. [1] https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a013500/a013522/JWST_v.…

Maybe that video can also help:

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10776

Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#134

Post by Rebelgecko »

s5300 wrote: post #58
EMM_386 wrote: post #9

This was an absurdly teeth-clenching deployment. And no back-up, even if the Ariane launch failed. No back-up. Congrats to everyone across the board for getting this amazing telescope right where it needs to be. Now all we need is the mirror alignment and we're in for some seriously incredible science.

It’s really sad to think about how well NASA works when you consider how little funding they get and how hard they have to fight for it. It’s honestly quite ridiculous. I know a lot of military industrial complex boils down to being nationwide jobs programs, e.g. everything to do with the F-35. But NASA? I don’t think they’re anywhere near as close to being a “jobs program” Off the top of my head, I really can’t thin…

This may or may not help your cynicism, but here's 2 fun facts:

* NASA doesn't even get the majority of the US government's space spending

* NASA's budget is still larger than every other country's civilian space program combined

Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#135

Post by p1mrx »

zionic wrote: post #94
PinkMilkshake wrote: post #3

I'm a little embarrassed to say this and I don't know exactly what I pictured in my head, but I had no idea these telescopes were so big[1]. I guess I never saw one pictured next to a human. I've only seen pictures of satellites being worked on so I expected something more human sized? It seems so stupid now, especially since earth telescopes are huge. [1] https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a013500/a013522/JWST_v.…

Really sad that 30 years later we're only slightly larger. This is a major problem for telescopes since there are hard physical limits on resolution vs size.

SpaceX Starship may help with that, assuming it works as intended.

Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#137

Post by wolverine876 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #90
wongarsu wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard the (probably unfounded) story that the Soviets saw the Space Shuttle, couldn't figure out why the Americans would build it but figured there surely must be a good reason; so they copied it to also have whatever capability the Americans were after.

Buran was also superior in capabilities; greater lift capacity, ability to transport more people, and attain higher orbits. It could also perform a mission entirely autonomously. The US Space Shuttle was the (heavy) inspiration, but the Soviets put their own spin on it.

It had one test flight. Hardly comparable to a system which had (six?) models fully deployed and operational.

Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#138

Post by justin66 »

js8 wrote: post #75
bestouff wrote: post #4

It's funny how the excellent job of the French Ariane launcher is nowhere to be seen in this (and others) article.

Worse, journalists often compare Webb with Hubble, but they mostly ignore the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_Space_Observatory , which had a larger primary mirror (for example, https://webb.nasa.gov/content/observatory/ote/mirrors/index.... ). It's a very subtle form of American exceptionalism.

> It's a very subtle form of American exceptionalism.

Oh, bullshit. NASA spends an awful lot of money and effort on promoting its projects to the English-language press. Does the ESA make a comparable amount of effort?

Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#139

Post by justin66 »

WithinReason wrote: post #127
itazula wrote: post #22

This animation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cUe4oMk69E&list=TLGG8tIphgp... is a nice visualization of the L2 orbit. It was different than what I expected.

For some reason I expected it to stay in Earth's shadow. L2 is probably too far from Earth for that.

An object at L2 absolutely could avoid the sun and stay in Earth's shadow. It would be problematical for this spacecraft, which is powered by a solar array.

Re: James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away

#140

Post by frosted-flakes »

snakeboy wrote: post #85
Laremere wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Destin has also peaked (or very close to it) in importance of person interviewed, as he interviewed Obama during their presidency. Though, sadly not an hour long. https://youtu.be/GpWQHFzrEqc

Just out of curiosity, is it considered best practice these days to use the gender-neutral "their" even with a specific subject (Obama) who is known to use masculine pronouns for himself?

Definitely not.
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