Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

JWST Launch NASA Livestream

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 41 posts

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#31

Post by api »

pfdietz wrote: post #26
efitz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m much more concerned about what will happen once the telescope is in operation. We can’t send astronauts to L2 to fix it like we could send them to Hubble on STS.

We can't yet, but doing so isn't entirely out of the question. It's easier than sending anyone to Mars. The one-way trip time for astronauts to L2 might be 25 days. https://www.wired.com/2012/04/100-day-mission-to-sun-earth-l...

JWST apparently does have some kind of docking attachment so we can service it if we get the capability between now and EOL. Servicing once could likely double its useful life. Starship and Orion could do it AFAIK. Maybe Dragon with a service module.

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#32

Post by 95014_refugee »

kingofpandora wrote: post #27

From the broadcast: "Liftoff from a tropical rain forest at the edge of time itself." What does that mean?

It means that someone was paid to talk, because radio dies hard.

The idea that commentary should be informative and that content can speak for itself is (still) deeply threatening to many folks in the broadcast industry. See any sports broadcast for examples.

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#33

Post by mlindner »

api wrote: post #31
pfdietz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can't yet, but doing so isn't entirely out of the question. It's easier than sending anyone to Mars. The one-way trip time for astronauts to L2 might be 25 days. https://www.wired.com/2012/04/100-day-mission-to-sun-earth-l...

JWST apparently does have some kind of docking attachment so we can service it if we get the capability between now and EOL. Servicing once could likely double its useful life. Starship and Orion could do it AFAIK. Maybe Dragon with a service module.

The docking attachment was originally planned but there's been no mention of it in the last 10 years or so and no pictures of such an attachment point. They probably de-scoped it.

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#34

Post by redisman »

api wrote: post #31
pfdietz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can't yet, but doing so isn't entirely out of the question. It's easier than sending anyone to Mars. The one-way trip time for astronauts to L2 might be 25 days. https://www.wired.com/2012/04/100-day-mission-to-sun-earth-l...

JWST apparently does have some kind of docking attachment so we can service it if we get the capability between now and EOL. Servicing once could likely double its useful life. Starship and Orion could do it AFAIK. Maybe Dragon with a service module.

I’m guessing they can’t service it by adding more fuel? That would’ve been a neat expansion to be able to expand its life

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#35

Post by kurthr »

dredmorbius wrote: post #15

Good launch. And over 472k viewers on the livestream. Good service by YouTube. (I don't get to praise them often, credit where due.) All launch events seemed precisely on schedule and trajectory. The 2nd stage even caught the solar panel deploy on camera, which I believe was an unexpected bonus. Now we've got 30 days of deployment events, another 300 or so SPOFs to clear. Arrival at L2 in a month. Six months to chill…

I was a little disappointed, because I'd watched the animation last night.

The only differences were in the first 4 seconds (before it hit the clouds) and after the spring launch, when we caught the solar panel deploy in the sun with earth below from the 2nd stage. At least everything went as planned!

I was surprised at the timeline and how rapidly it slows before reaching the L2 orbit. It's already fallen from 4mps to 1.7mps in the first few hours. Even though it takes 30 days to reach L2, it will be 30% of the way there in the first day.

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#36

Post by dredmorbius »

redisman wrote: post #34
api wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JWST apparently does have some kind of docking attachment so we can service it if we get the capability between now and EOL. Servicing once could likely double its useful life. Starship and Orion could do it AFAIK. Maybe Dragon with a service module.

I’m guessing they can’t service it by adding more fuel? That would’ve been a neat expansion to be able to expand its life

The possibility has been engineered, though the mission profile does not rely on this.

JWST does have a docking ring: https://www.space.com/3833-nasa-adds-docking-capability-spac...

Deets on station-keeping http://www.ai-solutions.com/Portals/0/AI%20Docs/Technical%20... (PDF)

NASA's official FAQ deems servicing does "not offset the increases in mission complexity, mass and cost that would be required to make Webb serviceable, or to conduct the servicing mission itself."

https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/faq.html#serviceabl...

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#37

Post by dredmorbius »

kurthr wrote: post #35
dredmorbius wrote: post #15

Good launch. And over 472k viewers on the livestream. Good service by YouTube. (I don't get to praise them often, credit where due.) All launch events seemed precisely on schedule and trajectory. The 2nd stage even caught the solar panel deploy on camera, which I believe was an unexpected bonus. Now we've got 30 days of deployment events, another 300 or so SPOFs to clear. Arrival at L2 in a month. Six months to chill…

I was a little disappointed, because I'd watched the animation last night. The only differences were in the first 4 seconds (before it hit the clouds) and after the spring launch, when we caught the solar panel deploy in the sun with earth below from the 2nd stage. At least everything went as planned! I was surprised at the timeline and how rapidly it slows before reaching the L2 orbit. It's already fallen from 4mps…

The difference: today's event relied on the animation to show planned mission phases.

And was accompanied by confirmations that those phases had in fact executed according to the plan.

The live shots of the JWST and solar array deploy were bonus.

Clear skies would've been nice. A good flight beats that though ;-)

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#38

Post by 1_player »

kurthr wrote: post #35
dredmorbius wrote: post #15

Good launch. And over 472k viewers on the livestream. Good service by YouTube. (I don't get to praise them often, credit where due.) All launch events seemed precisely on schedule and trajectory. The 2nd stage even caught the solar panel deploy on camera, which I believe was an unexpected bonus. Now we've got 30 days of deployment events, another 300 or so SPOFs to clear. Arrival at L2 in a month. Six months to chill…

I was a little disappointed, because I'd watched the animation last night. The only differences were in the first 4 seconds (before it hit the clouds) and after the spring launch, when we caught the solar panel deploy in the sun with earth below from the 2nd stage. At least everything went as planned! I was surprised at the timeline and how rapidly it slows before reaching the L2 orbit. It's already fallen from 4mps…

From my limited understanding of orbital mechanics from playing Kerbal Space Program, the furthest point of the orbit (aphelion) is where you reach minimum velocity. So to leave the Earth, you accelerate a lot (the so called burn) so that your orbit grows and as you get there your speed has been decreasing the whole way, and it increases back again after passing aphelion on your way back to Earth (perihelion).

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#39

Post by 8bitsrule »

dredmorbius wrote: post #15

Good launch. And over 472k viewers on the livestream. Good service by YouTube. (I don't get to praise them often, credit where due.) All launch events seemed precisely on schedule and trajectory. The 2nd stage even caught the solar panel deploy on camera, which I believe was an unexpected bonus. Now we've got 30 days of deployment events, another 300 or so SPOFs to clear. Arrival at L2 in a month. Six months to chill…

> solar panel deploy

Seems to start pushing out at about 1:50:30 in 'Livestream'

Re: JWST Launch NASA Livestream

#40

Post by 1_player »

1_player wrote: post #38
kurthr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a little disappointed, because I'd watched the animation last night. The only differences were in the first 4 seconds (before it hit the clouds) and after the spring launch, when we caught the solar panel deploy in the sun with earth below from the 2nd stage. At least everything went as planned! I was surprised at the timeline and how rapidly it slows before reaching the L2 orbit. It's already fallen from 4mps…

From my limited understanding of orbital mechanics from playing Kerbal Space Program, the furthest point of the orbit (aphelion) is where you reach minimum velocity. So to leave the Earth, you accelerate a lot (the so called burn) so that your orbit grows and as you get there your speed has been decreasing the whole way, and it increases back again after passing aphelion on your way back to Earth (perihelion).

Edit: should be periapsis and apoapsis instead of perihelion and aphelion
Post reply on HN