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NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

science.nasa.gov

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Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#21

Post by phaedrus »

trentnix wrote: post #17
tonetegeatinst wrote: post #7

NASA has such a tiny budget in comparison to other stuff....so they really have to stretch that money as far as they can, and especially considering spacecraft....its a very unforgiving production environment. Am I making a joke about deploying in production? Yes, yes I am. But I also know NASA really does the best they can and I am amazed at the insane work and effort that they do to make sure spacecraft they send a…

NASA looks efficient because you’re comparing it to the rest of government. I love the work they do. I wish they did more with what they have. And then I wish they had more to work with. When they are constrained, like they are with spacecraft already in flight, their ability to problem solve with the tools and systems they have available is absolutely impressive.

I'm sure at NASA as at all government agencies there are teams who work very efficiently and do more with less, and other teams whose mission does not have that characteristic and constraint.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#22

Post by duffyjp »

Freebytes wrote: post #15
tanbog45 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We used to get quake and Warcraft running on them from memory. It was - is! - a great chip.

I had a hard time getting Doom to run on my 486. I only had something like 4MB of RAM if I recall correctly so I had to restart my computer, edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT to remove options that I would use to load Windows, and then boot back into DOS to launch DOOM each time I wanted to play it to get that last bit of memory I needed. Then, when I wanted to run Windows, I had to edit the HIMEM.SYS stuff to get it running aga…

I recently installed DOS 6.22 on an old laptop. By old, I mean a core2duo with 4GB of ram. It was hilarious to me that I needed to google the correct settings to use to get a game that requires 4MB to work on a machine with 4GB.

My actual goal was to setup QBasic for my son, which I did-- but he thought it was stupid and refused to even let me show him how to code a Hello World app on it. :(

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#25

Post by LeifCarrotson »

jagger27 wrote: post #12

Hubble is such a productive piece of an equipment. What a shame there has been only one pointing outwards all these years.

It's a sad state of affairs that we as a society have only been able to prioritize sending up one single Hubble, while the US alone has sent up several dozen equivalent KH-9 and superior KH-11 satellites to look at Earth for classified military purposes.

I know there are other space-based telescopes (James Webb being larger and superior, others being much smaller and more specialized than Hubble) and lots of ground-based telescopes. I don't dispute that keeping an eye on Soviet missile development and other spy satellite tasks was and is an important mission that has significant, immediate consequences for our species than the informative and gorgeous photos of space that the Hubble mission produces. I'm just disappointed that the combination of human nature and politics makes this a reasonable outcome.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#26

Post by solarkraft »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #16
jagger27 wrote: post #12

Hubble is such a productive piece of an equipment. What a shame there has been only one pointing outwards all these years.

>What a shame there has been only one pointing outwards all these years. Let's not forget that initially it was considered a massive failure. There simply was no way for NASA to build another in the 90s. What's truly remarkable is how the ROI went from unknown, to negative, and then was a massive long-term success.

> Let's not forget that initially it was considered a massive failure

Why was that? Were fewer discoveries made than hoped?

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#27

Post by xnorswap »

Freebytes wrote: post #15
tanbog45 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We used to get quake and Warcraft running on them from memory. It was - is! - a great chip.

I had a hard time getting Doom to run on my 486. I only had something like 4MB of RAM if I recall correctly so I had to restart my computer, edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT to remove options that I would use to load Windows, and then boot back into DOS to launch DOOM each time I wanted to play it to get that last bit of memory I needed. Then, when I wanted to run Windows, I had to edit the HIMEM.SYS stuff to get it running aga…

My friend had a 486 (We only had a 386), but it would play doom really well.

However, the first step of any gaming session was to reboot the machine with the boot floppy in, which had the right boot settings for gaming performance.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#28

Post by xnorswap »

solarkraft wrote: post #26
1970-01-01 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What a shame there has been only one pointing outwards all these years. Let's not forget that initially it was considered a massive failure. There simply was no way for NASA to build another in the 90s. What's truly remarkable is how the ROI went from unknown, to negative, and then was a massive long-term success.

> Let's not forget that initially it was considered a massive failure Why was that? Were fewer discoveries made than hoped?

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/observatory/design/o...

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#29

Post by shagie »

Tangentially related (taking pictures of things on spacecraft with impaired systems for tracking the objective)...

https://llis.nasa.gov/lesson/394

> The Voyager 2 scan platform, on which are mounted the spacecraft cameras and several science instruments, is rotated in elevation and azimuth by actuators. Near the end of the Voyager 2 Saturn encounter, the scan platform azimuth actuator exhibited an anomaly. This anomaly was evidenced by the azimuth actuator seizing, causing a scan platform pointing error that resulted in a loss of some data. Through a series of ground commands, the problem was alleviated to the extent that the scan platform could perform its function. ...

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/27/us/camera-swivel-on-voyag...

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/28/us/swivel-on-voyager-stil...

Voyager engineering improvements for Uranus encounter - https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19860063178

> Finally, engineering improvements made in order to enhance scientific findings at the Uranus encounter are reviewed in detail. The two most important were the increased gyro drift turn rate capability to accommodate image motion compensation for the close fly-by of Miranda and the reduction in spacecraft rates to accommodate increased imaging exposure times without incurring excessive image smear.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#30

Post by Tostino »

phaedrus wrote: post #21
trentnix wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NASA looks efficient because you’re comparing it to the rest of government. I love the work they do. I wish they did more with what they have. And then I wish they had more to work with. When they are constrained, like they are with spacecraft already in flight, their ability to problem solve with the tools and systems they have available is absolutely impressive.

I'm sure at NASA as at all government agencies there are teams who work very efficiently and do more with less, and other teams whose mission does not have that characteristic and constraint.

The majority of inefficiency seems to leek into NASA via our Congress.
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