unfortunate name
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
71–80 of 115 posts
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#72Part of the story is everyone being shocked at being under budget and ahead of schedule. I don't know everything, but I think this is reasonably attributable to the fact that this is a retrofit of an obsolete spy satellite. The leftovers of the security sector will be the most advanced scientific space surveyor. I have to wonder what things would look like with different priorities.
> I have to wonder what things would look like with different priorities. Things aren't as simple as more money = more good. Rapid progress requires adversity, the kind you'll find when nations compete for military power, for example.
Adversity forces a scientific budget and for jobs to be created in related research areas. For some reason we don’t find it important to maintain that level of funding when there’s no adversity.
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#73I will never understand why NASA doesn't build at least two copies of expensive space telescopes like this. One single launch failure and boom (literally), the entire project is a failure? It wouldn't double the cost assuming they do it with even a modicum of efficiency and intelligence. And hey - assuming that the launch goes smoothly, you can get double the benefit
why build one when you can build two for twice the price?
I always thought this was a ridiculous part of the movie but it truly stuck with me more anything.
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#74[deleted]
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#75The data, up to 1.4TB/day raw compressed, is planned to be fully open, every observation is public as soon as it is processed with no embargo. You can just download it and start looking for Rama or Oumuamua or plan your exoplanetary real estate empire or make a really big sandbox game. I at least want somebody to make me a cool screen saver. You could easily be the first person to see a galaxy. I wonder how much spac…
> When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks.
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#76The data, up to 1.4TB/day raw compressed, is planned to be fully open, every observation is public as soon as it is processed with no embargo. You can just download it and start looking for Rama or Oumuamua or plan your exoplanetary real estate empire or make a really big sandbox game. I at least want somebody to make me a cool screen saver. You could easily be the first person to see a galaxy. I wonder how much spac…
> every observation is public as soon as it is processed with no embargo
That's a big deal. Do you have any source for that? (I couldn't find it in the ones you linked). This is great for humanity as a whole, but... poor grad students who now need to rush to publish their papers even sooner.
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#77I will never understand why NASA doesn't build at least two copies of expensive space telescopes like this. One single launch failure and boom (literally), the entire project is a failure? It wouldn't double the cost assuming they do it with even a modicum of efficiency and intelligence. And hey - assuming that the launch goes smoothly, you can get double the benefit
I guess for one thing, these launches don't tend to fail and second, they actually do make duplicate missions sometimes. See Voyagers 1 and 2, Spirit and Opportunity and Curiosity and Perseverance.
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then you see it wrong. Plans for returning humans to the surface of the moon have been being developed for longer than you've known Musk's name. The Artemis program was developed out of the Constellation program, which was initiated sometime around 2005 or 6.
How is landing on the moon not a publicity stunt? What can the humans do that massively cheaper robots couldn't - besides take some awesome photos and bring back some more moon rocks? Of course there have long been plans to go back to the moon because its a cool fun thing to do and whoever happens to be president would likely be well remembered for taking credit for it. That doesn't give it credibility as a useful en…
> How is landing on the moon not a publicity stunt?
That's fine, we all have our personal heros and villains. But don't be so disingenuous with your arguments or your reasoning.
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#79The data, up to 1.4TB/day raw compressed, is planned to be fully open, every observation is public as soon as it is processed with no embargo. You can just download it and start looking for Rama or Oumuamua or plan your exoplanetary real estate empire or make a really big sandbox game. I at least want somebody to make me a cool screen saver. You could easily be the first person to see a galaxy. I wonder how much spac…
> every observation is public as soon as it is processed with no embargo That's a big deal. Do you have any source for that? (I couldn't find it in the ones you linked). This is great for humanity as a whole, but... poor grad students who now need to rush to publish their papers even sooner .
Data from all of Roman’s surveys will be made public as soon as it is processed, with no periods of exclusive access.
Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
#80The data, up to 1.4TB/day raw compressed, is planned to be fully open, every observation is public as soon as it is processed with no embargo. You can just download it and start looking for Rama or Oumuamua or plan your exoplanetary real estate empire or make a really big sandbox game. I at least want somebody to make me a cool screen saver. You could easily be the first person to see a galaxy. I wonder how much spac…
> When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks.
On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.