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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

#81

Post by [deleted] »

dylan604 wrote: post #37
aejm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Once Hubble is on target, the steadiness of the telescope in one-gyro mode is almost comparable to that of a full three-gyro complement… Although one-gyro mode is an excellent way to keep Hubble science operations going, it does have limitations, which include a small decrease in efficiency (roughly 12 percent) due to the added time required to slew and lock the telescope onto a science target… If Earth or the moon…

The impact on Jupiter bit seems strange to me. Unless it's something that just pops up out of nowhere, it seems like we'd have been tracking the impactor for some time to be able to have plenty of lead time for Hubble to use its walker to slowly get into position.

[deleted]

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#82

Post by dingnuts »

el_toast wrote: post #79
FactolSarin wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

Congress is the owner. Want a different management ideology? Get different management.

NASA is wasteful, eh? Maybe that's because they have no incentive not to be wasteful..

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#84

Post by pkaye »

dylan604 wrote: post #40
1970-01-01 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What a shame there has been only one pointing outwards all these years. Let's not forget that initially it was considered a massive failure. There simply was no way for NASA to build another in the 90s. What's truly remarkable is how the ROI went from unknown, to negative, and then was a massive long-term success.

Let's not forget that NRO donated multiple Hubble level satellites. NASA had no budget to utilize them, so they were not used. Of course there were other logistics involved that made the "gifts" not so practical. However, the thing that gets me is that if the NRO was willing to donate these satellites tells me that they have better than Hubble quality imaging looking inwards and absolutely have multiple of them.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is one of them. They still had to change the optics for astronomical purposes.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#86

Post by doctorwho42 »

_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…

I think they are commenting on the requirements imposed on NASA with regards to where parts are made (what states), etc.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#87

Post by dirtyv »

_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…

I've have personally seen instances where it is recommended to go over your budget, so it appears your budget needs to be increased.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#88

Post by BurningFrog »

pohl wrote: post #85
BurningFrog wrote: post #38

I just think it's sad that they're doing fixes on a 34 year old telescope instead of sending up a new improved model every 10 years.

Why not both? Send up new telescopes and keep the old ones running.

If feasible, sure.

But I'd expect it's often cheaper to send up a new telescope than to repair an old one.

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#89

Post by justahuman74 »

TremendousJudge wrote: post #67
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Spotify has a 12bn budget? What are they spending it on? Does it include licensing fees?

Spotify doesn't have a great bargaining position against the record labels, they don't make much profit.

This is why they've been trying to move into all the other stuff like podcasts

Re: NASA releases Hubble image taken in new pointing mode

#90

Post by dr_orpheus »

cubefox wrote: post #74
dr_orpheus wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The accuracy of MEMS gyros is orders of magnitude worse than the gyros on Hubble. I suspect based on this article [0] that Hubble uses hemispherical resonator gyros (HRG [1]). The really high accuracy rate sensors that you find in spacecraft are usually HRGs or Fiber Optic Gyroscopes (FOG). [0] https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/observatory/design/h... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope#HRG

Oh, this made me worried about JWST (as it can't be serviced once the gyroscopes break), but I found this: > To detect changes in direction JWST uses hemispherical resonator gyroscopes (HRG). HRGs are expected to be more reliable than the gas-bearing gyroscopes that were a reliability issue on Hubble Space Telescope. They cannot point as finely, however, which is overcome by the JWST fine guidance mirror.[18] https:/…

Interesting, TIL that Hubble uses gas-bearing gyroscopes. I been struggling to find any other spacecraft that use those gas-bearing gyros. The only other one that seems to be using them (that is still operational) is the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
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