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James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

phys.org

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Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have a look at ours: https://www.exodusorbitals.com

Cube sats don't count :) The requirements and budgets for them mean that they're much more expendable than something flying on a full size bus. As such, the level of risk tolerance is much higher.

Even CubeSats today still use the SPARC (LEON) since it's easy to implement on a FPGA as a soft core. I'm personally not fan of SPARC though.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#153
post #36

Man, I really want this telescope to succeed its mission, but I just can't get over how complex its deployment procedure is. I am extremely pessimistic about it actually managing to deploy as planned.

I have read in other discussions that the contractor has great confidence in the deployment of the sun shield because of their experience with similar systems on classified satellites. I think as long as the launch is successful there won’t be any problems with the mission.

This is a good take, I like it, the US has deployed tons of spy satellites, and if they think the sail/shield+Mirrors will deploy well because they have used it in spy satellites before then I'll believe it

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#154
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We would probably do this robotically.

"What do we do when the robotic satellite fails?" "Send another robot!"

"What do we do when the L2 point is filled with broken robots?"

Could that happen?

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an over generalization. There’s a big range of agility at JPL depending on how close your work is to spacecraft operations. Here are two current job openings placed by good groups at JPL that many people here would find challenging and innovative — https://jpl.jobs/jobs/2018-9779-Senior-Software-Engineer-Aut... (group webpage: https://ai.jpl.nasa.gov/ ) https://jpl.jobs/jobs/2019-10706-Big-Data-Analytics-Soft…

I think what they build doesn’t run on any probe but on Earth so the world doesn’t go under if they make mistakes . It’s the same in medical. The closer you get to the patient the more regulation you get.

I agree with your medical analogy.

Like I said, there’s a range of work at JPL, and some of the autonomy work by the linked group most definitely has run on Mars and in Earth orbit.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#156
post #84

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They already built the damn thing, how hard could it be to land it in stable orbit 1.5 gigameters from the planet? This ain't rocket science, people. Wait a second.

I had !remind me in 2 years setup for it. Didn't really know why, but figured out eventually by how long it's taking them. Also - isn't the tech behind it is going to be obsolete pretty soon?

Obsolete in what sense?

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#157
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The complete array works out at 937 megapixels. (As of 2011. It may have changed.) http://optics.org/news/2/7/9

So about 14 smartphones of 2019

Beyond a doubt the sensors on a 2019 smartphone would pale in comparison to what is on that craft, and not just in resolution.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an over generalization. There’s a big range of agility at JPL depending on how close your work is to spacecraft operations. Here are two current job openings placed by good groups at JPL that many people here would find challenging and innovative — https://jpl.jobs/jobs/2018-9779-Senior-Software-Engineer-Aut... (group webpage: https://ai.jpl.nasa.gov/ ) https://jpl.jobs/jobs/2019-10706-Big-Data-Analytics-Soft…

I think what they build doesn’t run on any probe but on Earth so the world doesn’t go under if they make mistakes . It’s the same in medical. The closer you get to the patient the more regulation you get.

I worked for that AI group for a little while 20 years ago. It was one of my favorite jobs, but did not pay competitively (maybe it would've if I'd had a degree) and you're right that my code never flew (though others had better luck there).

Oh, to continue the theme I also interviewed for a couple of startups spun off by JPL people. The one that got to an offer offered way less money than the big internet company I was also interviewing with then.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had !remind me in 2 years setup for it. Didn't really know why, but figured out eventually by how long it's taking them. Also - isn't the tech behind it is going to be obsolete pretty soon?

Obsolete in what sense?

It is a big digital camera. They dont stay cutting edge for very long.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope emerges successfully from final thermal vacuum test

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can combine multiple mirrors like they did with the black hole photo.

This requires keeping the baseline constant to a fraction of the wave length. In other words you would have to position the satellites with a accuracy of 100 nm relative to each other. In other words: No we can not (, yet. For a decade at least).

unless the interferometer is assembled in orbit from several spacecraft. a frame plus three (or more) robotic mirrors.
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