Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

[unofan]

So's a good toilet, but we don't name our generational space projects after them. I'm sure there was some long-suffering gay black American Indian disabled female physicist we could have named it after.

I know this is because I'm still caffeine deprived and also annoyed because I just finished a book that, while entertaining, tried too hard to show how woke the author was to its detriment (and I don't say that lightly, knowing that it's overused), but I don't think my eyes could've rolled any farther back in my head.

We're in the age of Boaty McBoatface and givememoney.com sponsorships. Anything named normally is fine by me.

 

[LynahFan]

If you've ever worked for a horrendous manager, you'd understand that a great manager is a godsend and deserves every credit they get.

He led NASA’s transformation into a true space agency - it was still called NACA up through 1958. So he didn’t spend years in grad school counting fruit flies? Big deal. He was a visionary who pulled together not just an organization but the entire industrial base to put a man on the moon just 21 years after we broke the sound barrier - roughly the same amount of time that the F-35 program has existed.

I’m impressed.

 

[Kepler]

Worth a look.

 

[Kepler]

Guide to all of Webb's major deployments.

 

[MichVandal]

He led NASA’s transformation into a true space agency - it was still called NACA up through 1958. So he didn’t spend years in grad school counting fruit flies? Big deal. He was a visionary who pulled together not just an organization but the entire industrial base to put a man on the moon just 21 years after we broke the sound barrier - roughly the same amount of time that the F-35 program has existed.

I’m impressed.

Again, a big building would be just fine and more permanent than a space telescope. The telescope should be named for the team that figured out that there were black holes pretty much everywhere- altering astrophysics. Or the team that saw exoplanets- since that's one of the telescope's main missions.

Hubble's data show the universe was expanding. Which was one of the most profound changes in astronomy.

 

[Kepler]

Again, a big building would be just fine and more permanent than a space telescope. The telescope should be named for the team that figured out that there were black holes pretty much everywhere- altering astrophysics. Or the team that saw exoplanets- since that's one of the telescope's main missions.

Hubble's data show the universe was expanding. Which was one of the most profound changes in astronomy.

Exactly.

Give the administrators the ground facilities, fine, whatevs. Name the science-gathering artifacts after people who did science. Hell, name the NextGen after Margaret Geller, the bad as-s who discovered and mapped the Great Wall.

 

[Kepler]

3 minutes

 

[Kepler]

15 minutes into flight, a-ok

 

[Kepler]

 

[Kepler]

The live pictures of Webb from the upper stage camera after separation, with the Earth in the background, are amazing.

That's not a simulation. We can see the solar array deploying and the telescope becoming self-powered, in real time!

 

[MichVandal]

The live pictures of Webb from the upper stage camera after separation, with the Earth in the background, are amazing.

That's not a simulation. We can see the solar array deploying and the telescope becoming self-powered, in real time!

That was a very cool view to see- with the solar array starting to come out, and then the planned decay burn for the stage took the scope out of view.

For a while I was kind of disappointed that there very few on board views- but in hindsight, everything needs to be focused on it being perfect as opposed to seeing it happen- so fewer things going back and forth as well as less weight was imperative.

 

[Kepler]

For a while I was kind of disappointed that there very few on board views- but in hindsight, everything needs to be focused on it being perfect as opposed to seeing it happen- so fewer things going back and forth as well as less weight was imperative.

I had exactly the same train of thought as I watched.

 

[LynahFan]

The live pictures of Webb from the upper stage camera after separation, with the Earth in the background, are amazing.

That's not a simulation. We can see the solar array deploying and the telescope becoming self-powered, in real time!

When that’s the quality of the images that we’re getting from the flight telemetry system….

Salivating!

 

[dxmnkd316]

So cool. We didn’t make it up in time. Which is ok. I’m so happy it made it up. I’ve been waiting for this for a very long time. Definite congratulations to the countless people who worked on this, some their entire adult lives.

Ive been getting very much back into space and astronomy over the past couple months. Bought Kerbal Space Program which is a lot of fun and takes some decent thought to be successful. and my wife bought me the Saturn V LEGO set for Christmas. Very, very cool. That donkey is going to be 40” tall when it’s done.

 

[dxmnkd316]

That was a very cool view to see- with the solar array starting to come out, and then the planned decay burn for the stage took the scope out of view.

For a while I was kind of disappointed that there very few on board views- but in hindsight, everything needs to be focused on it being perfect as opposed to seeing it happen- so fewer things going back and forth as well as less weight was imperative.

There were and still are so many single points of failure that cameras should be strictly functional. I’m ok with that.

 

[aparch]

.... and my wife bought me the Saturn V LEGO set for Christmas. Very, very cool. That donkey is going to be 40? tall when it?s done.

I've had the Saturn V for two years, it's an awesome set with some great building techniques. The Apollo 11 Lander is also a fun set to have.

 

[dxmnkd316]

I've had the Saturn V for two years, it's an awesome set with some great building techniques. The Apollo 11 Lander is also a fun set to have.

She got me that last year :-D

 

[Kepler]

Webb is already over a tenth of the way to insertion.

 

[MichVandal]

Webb is already over a tenth of the way to insertion.

Keeping that page open for the foreseeable future.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Keeping that page open for the foreseeable future.

Saved to folder: Private - Keep Out