Earlier quoted context omitted.
SpaceX is going to pass whatever company is launching Falcon in short order, leaving them in the dust
The Falcon 9 is a SpaceX rocket
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NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
121–130 of 134 posts
Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#122Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#123Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#124I call it here, Musk will cut it before they do it
I highly doubt it, but is that plausible?
It’s possible. But if he thinks his company will benefit (like by launching the things into Space) then he probably won’t. Sad that this is where we are. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#125> four suitcase-sized satellites Americans will use anything else but the metric system :)
Believe me, many of us wish we were on the metric system.
I do a lot of large carpentry projects for fun and wood is produced in inch and foot dimensions—and the most common “beam”, a 2x4, is actually 1.5”x3.5”. You can buy “dimensional lumber” that’s actually 2”x4”, but that’s rare and expensive to find. So putting two 2x4s together doesn’t even make a 4x4 (you end up with 3”x3.5”; a 4x4 is 3.5”x3.5”).
Anyways, as I’m doing calculations I’m measuring things like 5/8” or 9/16” and then adding or subtracting large fractions in my head. It’s absolutely stupid.
Let alone converting between different units makes most people unable to imagine the relative size of things in distance, weight, or volume. I really believe the US education system would benefit if we switched to metric. It almost happened in the 1970s.
Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#126Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fram2
There was also Polaris Dawn about 6 months ago. They did a highly polar orbit
I don't want to quibble just to be contrarian. Polaris Dawn was at the International Space Station's inclination, 52°, which is the most common destination for human astronauts. Isn't usually considered a polar orbit.
I want rather to clarify a really neat point, about what the other mission's doing. From KSC, you can conventionally only launch to inclinations below 62° [0] (constrained by populated landmasses). To get to a true polar orbit from Florida, that means they have to attempt a curved launch [1]—something that's pretty rare, and (to my knowledge) Falcon itself never tried before. (The parent comment was right to ask whether a polar orbit is possible: it does create interesting challenges).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Space_Center_Launch_Co...
Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#128Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any chance there will be enough "parallax" in the 6-month period to get a stereo-distancing map for the galaxies? Or do we already have that from red-shift, relative luminance or some other means?
Andromeda (the nearest) is 2e19 km away and has a relative motion of 300 km/s in the radial direction. If we assume the tangential motion is similar, that's 5e9 km of tangential displacement over 6 months, for a total angular displacement of 5e-5 arcseconds (50 microarcseconds). That's well below the precision of every telescope. (Admittedly GAIA, the one designed for parallax measurements, comes close, but its techn…
Thank you.
Re: NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
#130To be honest, I was expecting Elon and DOGE to have completely gutted NASA by now, while at the same time allocating more contracts to SpaceX.
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