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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

#151

Post by anticensor »

nxobject wrote: post #142
gclawes wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if after Polaris Dawn proves out spacewalking from Dragon, SpaceX will develop the capability to repair the Hubble once again. I doubt it'll be from spacewalks on Dragon, given they probably can't support something as big as an MMU (unless they pull a really cool hat trick), but maybe with Starship. I get that at some point it's more worthwhile to launch a new telescope (maybe one of those donated KENNENs fr…

Who would notice if they just quietly switched Hubble out with its military equivalent? /s

Everyone would, as the Hubble's mirror and instrument spec is ever so slighly different from the ground pointing espionage satellites. There are lots of failure modes that are acceptable in ground pointing operations but not in space pointing operations.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#152

Post by anticensor »

_mlbt wrote: post #72
Tostino wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This isn’t specific to NASA or Congress. U.S. Government agencies will utilize whatever budget they are given, period. There is no incentive to be efficient. If there is leftover money in the final fiscal quarter you are highly encouraged to use every penny, even if that means buying new furniture and office supplies that you don’t really need. Any leftover money will be given to someone else and you will receive a s…

This isn't specific to the US Government either, it applies to almost any government agency in the world.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#153

Post by bugbuddy »

ChrisBland wrote: post #147
gclawes wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if after Polaris Dawn proves out spacewalking from Dragon, SpaceX will develop the capability to repair the Hubble once again. I doubt it'll be from spacewalks on Dragon, given they probably can't support something as big as an MMU (unless they pull a really cool hat trick), but maybe with Starship. I get that at some point it's more worthwhile to launch a new telescope (maybe one of those donated KENNENs fr…

The hardest part of this is actually grappling the satellite. Shuttle had the arm, how will spacex capture?

Dragon Arm(tm)?

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#154

Post by arlort »

lupusreal wrote: post #101
hagbard_c wrote: post #99

Hey SpaceX, here's an idea: put a few of your 'Atlas' robots on one of the upcoming Starship test vehicles - maybe the one where you plan to test in-orbit refuelling since it probably takes a bit of extra fuel to get to Hubble's orbit - and get the thing to meet up with Hubble. Have the robots replace the failed gyros, replace the batteries and whatever other consumables that old relic contains. Have them take back t…

What even is the point of looking at space if we give up the pretext of sending people there? It just turns into an expensive way to mint PhDs on the taxpayer's dime, studying things which cannot have economic relevance on Earth (which is why they can't be studied on Earth.)

There's more important things in the universe than those which have economic relevance.

In fact studying things which have no apparent economic relevance is one of the best uses of government dime and has been so, to the great benefit of humanity as a whole, for centuries if not millennia

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#155

Post by redundantly »

bugbuddy wrote: post #153
ChrisBland wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardest part of this is actually grappling the satellite. Shuttle had the arm, how will spacex capture?

Dragon Arm(tm)?

Nah. The successor to Dragon will be Trogdor. They'll put one of those beefy arms on it for good measure.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#156

Post by Dylan16807 »

gammarator wrote: post #54
moffkalast wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the JWST is in fact a thing. Why not keep getting science from the old ones while they're still working? NASA really needs to just fill their telescopes with gyros upon gyros, like just plaster the things with gyros and reaction wheels for 50x redundancy since that's always the mission critical thing that fails first. Or maybe a xenon powered ion reaction control system or something that would last longer then h…

> NASA really needs to just fill their telescopes with gyros upon gyros It’s an interesting tradeoff. Missions are designed (and costed) for a nominal mission lifetime; adding more redundancy increases costs. But it’s true that the successful missions tend to stay in operations much longer than their normal lifetime.

The builtin gyros didn't even reach the original mission lifetime of 15 years.

There's a limit to how much redundancy you can put in a satellite, but with how consistently these parts fail it would make sense to put in a lot. If 1% of the Hubble's weight was extra gyroscopes it would have 30-40 of them.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#157

Post by lhoff »

wongarsu wrote: post #95
el_toast wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same story with shuttle and that's why it looks the way it is and was as expensive as it was. It would have been a completely different vehicle if Congress weren't meddling.

What NASA wanted was a space station, a small tug to move stuff in space, and a small shuttle to move people and cargo from earth to that station. The whole point of the space shuttle was to have it service the space station, but the station wasn't greenlit. Instead we got a much bigger shuttle that was useful as a military asset but was a money pit with terrible safety record. Luckily the Soviet Union collapsed and…

> Luckily the Soviet Union collapsed and the ISS was funded as a job program for Soviet rocket scientists (out of fear they could be poached to work on ICBMs for other nations).

It's the first time that I heard this theory. Do you have any sources to read up on it?

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#158

Post by tick_tock_tick »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #64
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.

> NASA looks efficient because you’re comparing it to the rest of government. NASA also looks quite efficient when you compare it to many tech companies. NASA has 18k employees and $25bn budget in 2023, let's compare it with some companies: Spotify and Stripe are each equal to half of NASA both in terms of employees and budget. Snapchat and Airbnb are both approx 1/3rd of NASA in both employees and budget. Yahoo has…

Employees is a horrible metric to use since NASA contracts out nearly everything.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#159

Post by [deleted] »

FactolSarin wrote: post #71
tempnow987 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you look at what they are spending on the entire SLS infrastructure vs what they are getting (vs other science options and/or space exploration options) and basically your mind is blown at how wasteful NASA is. SLS is a $2-$3 billion per launch DISPOSABLE rocket. The orion capsule is going to be something like $20 billion(!). I think things like launch abort and service module with all the propulsion etc are a…

I don't think NASA would have chosen the SLS platform though. It was basically mandated by Congress.

[deleted]

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#160

Post by throwaway2037 »

akira2501 wrote: post #128
dahart wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s an average for the year 2024, but as income taxpayers we only pay around half of that, or around $36.40 per American (using the $24.9B 2024 budget and 342M for the 2024 population), or maybe about one week’s morning Starbucks habit for some of us. :P The rest is paid by businesses and other sources. Of course, compared to the amount the military costs & spends, NASA’s really small.

The treasury receives 85% of it's income from individual income tax payers, 7% from business taxes, and 7% from excise taxes. Around 50% of your taxes go to social security and medicare, and the other 50% are available for program revenue.

    > Around 50% of your taxes go to social security and medicare
I Googled about this. It looks reasonably accurate:

    > Mandatory spending and entitlements (a) Social Security ($845B or 24% of spending), (b) Healthcare such as Medicare and Medicaid ($831B or 24%)
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_Sta...

I wonder if this spending split is common in all other highly developed nations (think: OECD level). My guess: Yes.

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