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Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

science.nasa.gov

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Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

#2
For some tasks, surveys in particular, field of view is critical. You would need many Hubble telescopes to do what Roman can do mapping everything out there.

"What really makes Roman stand out is that it is designed for wide-field imaging. The cameras on telescopes can often only detect objects in a very small patch of sky. If we use the size that the full moon appears in the sky as our guide, Hubble’s field of view is often smaller than that —meaning each picture it takes is of a patch of sky smaller than the full moon. Webb’s instruments often are even smaller than Hubble’s. Each picture taken by Roman, however, will be larger than the full moon, allowing it to survey more of the sky much faster than Hubble or Webb."

https://science.psu.edu/news/ask-expert-will-roman-help-reve...

Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

#3
I'm still holding my breath on this one, will be most amazing telescope in my lifetime

parked in L2 a million miles away with 500mbps data transfer rate (1.5TB per DAY)

we've made it past DOGE destroying it

we've made it past him renaming it after himself and putting his mugshot on it

but Musk still needs to send it out of orbit without explosions, so here's hoping

(Falcon Heavy, don't tell me the odds)

* https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/6983/

* JWST vs Roman comparison https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14942/

* https://www.wired.com/story/nasas-nancy-grace-roman-space-te...

* https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-roman-space...

* https://www.npr.org/2026/08/28/nx-s1-5905370/nasa-nancy-grac...

did not know and it's horrific Roman started as a billion dollar spy satellite sitting in a warehouse unused, but okay we got the crumbs from $20 Trillion in military spending I guess

oh and while the smallest planet Roman can image will be Jupiter-sized, Roman's successor would be able to image earth-like planets

except The Habitale Worlds Observatory Space Telescope HWO was scheduled for 2040 and now will not happen in my lifetime because DOGE got that one, Congress awarded it $150 Million and DOGE changed it to $5 Million

* https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/habitable-wor...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_Worlds_Observatory

Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

#6
post #2

For some tasks, surveys in particular, field of view is critical. You would need many Hubble telescopes to do what Roman can do mapping everything out there. "What really makes Roman stand out is that it is designed for wide-field imaging. The cameras on telescopes can often only detect objects in a very small patch of sky. If we use the size that the full moon appears in the sky as our guide, Hubble’s field of view…

And yet the narrow-field Hubble produced this famous image

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/universe-unc...

Those are galaxies. In a field of view "about 1/13th the diameter of the full Moon."

Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

#8
post #3

I'm still holding my breath on this one, will be most amazing telescope in my lifetime parked in L2 a million miles away with 500mbps data transfer rate (1.5TB per DAY) we've made it past DOGE destroying it we've made it past him renaming it after himself and putting his mugshot on it but Musk still needs to send it out of orbit without explosions, so here's hoping (Falcon Heavy, don't tell me the odds) * https://nex…

It is not 500mbps but 500Mbps. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/commu...

"mbps" is a meaningless abbreviation. You need to consistently and correctly use capital letters when communicating technical terms. You cannot "e e cummings" your way into effective writing.

500 megabits per second works out to 5.4 terabytes per day. No idea where you get 1.5, unless you were thinking of 500Mb/hour!

60 × 60 × 24 × 500 × 1000000 ÷ 8

Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

#9
post #3

I'm still holding my breath on this one, will be most amazing telescope in my lifetime parked in L2 a million miles away with 500mbps data transfer rate (1.5TB per DAY) we've made it past DOGE destroying it we've made it past him renaming it after himself and putting his mugshot on it but Musk still needs to send it out of orbit without explosions, so here's hoping (Falcon Heavy, don't tell me the odds) * https://nex…

Is it really 500 Mbps of data headed to Earth 24x7? I'd be very interested to see any available public info about the earth station infrastructure being set up for that.

Re: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

#10
post #3

I'm still holding my breath on this one, will be most amazing telescope in my lifetime parked in L2 a million miles away with 500mbps data transfer rate (1.5TB per DAY) we've made it past DOGE destroying it we've made it past him renaming it after himself and putting his mugshot on it but Musk still needs to send it out of orbit without explosions, so here's hoping (Falcon Heavy, don't tell me the odds) * https://nex…

> except The Habitale Worlds Observatory Space Telescope HWO was scheduled for 2040 and now will not happen in my lifetime because DOGE got that one, Congress awarded it $150 Million and DOGE changed it to $5 Million

I was so excited for this. It was the one thing I really wanted to see happen in my own lifetime.

What a deeply moronic waste.

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