Space and Astronomy in general

Jonman wrote:
bigred wrote:
Jonman wrote:

There's an extensive body of academic work on secure radio comms. This is not a new problem.

Makes sense. I just thought as the price point of these missions increase into the billions and competing countries begin their own space race, I wonder how this might become a factor.

Honestly, if I was your terrorism advisor, I'd be asking why you're bothering with Webb when there's a bajillionty easier targets in low Earth orbit.

You're hired! We uh...let the last advisor go...down the side of a skyscraper...

Jonman wrote:
bigred wrote:
Jonman wrote:

There's an extensive body of academic work on secure radio comms. This is not a new problem.

Makes sense. I just thought as the price point of these missions increase into the billions and competing countries begin their own space race, I wonder how this might become a factor.

Honestly, if I was your terrorism advisor, I'd be asking why you're bothering with Webb when there's a bajillionty easier targets in low Earth orbit.

Plutonium?

Mixolyde wrote:
Jonman wrote:
bigred wrote:
Jonman wrote:

There's an extensive body of academic work on secure radio comms. This is not a new problem.

Makes sense. I just thought as the price point of these missions increase into the billions and competing countries begin their own space race, I wonder how this might become a factor.

Honestly, if I was your terrorism advisor, I'd be asking why you're bothering with Webb when there's a bajillionty easier targets in low Earth orbit.

Plutonium?

IMAGE(https://i.giphy.com/5y8sRBYSWWb16.gif)

Haha I opened a tab to search for that exact gif... Then scrolled down and it's already there.

While you guys were busy discussing terrorism and plutonium, the JWST team did the thing.

Secondary Mirror Deployment Begins Tomorrow

I can't wait!

Norfair wrote:
Robear wrote:

Think of throwing a baseball up in a parabola. It's vertical speed diminishes, eventually reaching a standstill, then gaining speed again heading back down. The cool thing here is that the top of the parabola is at a point where gravity is balanced between the earth and the moon. A bit of a nudge and it'll stay up there indefinitely.

That's how I understand it. Hrdina?

My over 200 hours of Kerbal Space Program tells me that this explanation is correct.

I recall Kerbal not having Lagrange points because the planets ran on rails and applied a gravity simulation to other things in their 'sphere of influence'.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:
Norfair wrote:
Robear wrote:

Think of throwing a baseball up in a parabola. It's vertical speed diminishes, eventually reaching a standstill, then gaining speed again heading back down. The cool thing here is that the top of the parabola is at a point where gravity is balanced between the earth and the moon. A bit of a nudge and it'll stay up there indefinitely.

That's how I understand it. Hrdina?

My over 200 hours of Kerbal Space Program tells me that this explanation is correct.

I recall Kerbal not having Lagrange points because the planets ran on rails and applied a gravity simulation to other things in their 'sphere of influence'.

Google agrees with you, though there appears to be a mod that replaces Kerbal's simplistic 2-body gravity with an n-body gravitation simulation.

Is KSP 2 actually going to come out this year? Cause these recent posts are how I get back into KSP. Poor, poor Kerbals...

Jonman wrote:

Honestly, if I was your terrorism advisor, I'd be asking why you're bothering with Webb when there's a bajillionty easier targets in low Earth orbit.

Is this Elon Musk's true goal with Starlink?

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

I recall Kerbal not having Lagrange points because the planets ran on rails and applied a gravity simulation to other things in their 'sphere of influence'.

Yes, and those sphere of influence transitions can be a little glitchy. I once used too much time acceleration leaving Jool, and ended up with a couple of Kerbals on course to dive into the sun. That rescue mission demanded a lot of delta-v. Thank goodness for overpowered ion engines.

Hrdina wrote:

While you guys were busy discussing terrorism and plutonium, the JWST team did the thing.

Secondary Mirror Deployment Begins Tomorrow

And it was successful.

Norfair wrote:
Robear wrote:

Think of throwing a baseball up in a parabola. It's vertical speed diminishes, eventually reaching a standstill, then gaining speed again heading back down. The cool thing here is that the top of the parabola is at a point where gravity is balanced between the earth and the moon. A bit of a nudge and it'll stay up there indefinitely.

That's how I understand it. Hrdina?

My over 200 hours of Kerbal Space Program tells me that this explanation is correct.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/A88qGb8.jpg)

Agathos wrote:

Thank goodness for overpowered ion engines.

I mean, they're literally the weakest engine in the game.

Specific impulse is strength!

Open the pod bay doors, please, Alexa.

Some Neil Degrasse Tyson highlight vids popped up in my suggestions recently.
It is always a real pick me up to listen to him.
But one thing in particular struck me that I can't stop thinking about:

When asked about life in the universe he talked about how hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are both the most plentiful elements in the universe and are the building blocks of life. He also mention carbon's unique traits in that it is the element that can be combined into the most molecules. (or something to that effect)

So I keep thinking that based on that, if life isn't prevalent in the universe, it is inevitable that it will be or has already been.

And borrow something from the nature of how computers and software evolved from hundreds to trillions of bits, that intelligent life is either prevalent, has been or will be.

Robear wrote:

Did you follow the suggestion from the comments and watch this video with subtitles?

"Are you from the same part of England as Dick Van Dyke?"

Oh, and the JWST team whipped out their radiator today.

The primary mirror wings are scheduled to be moved into position over the next two days!

Actually I've come to be able to understand Scottish accents pretty well. Read enough Irvine Welsh, watch Scottish TV shows and such, and it is easy to get. Plus I've been there lol.

Robear wrote:

Actually I've come to be able to understand Scottish accents pretty well. Read enough Irvine Welsh, watch Scottish TV shows and such, and it is easy to get. Plus I've been there lol.

That might be true, but whatever generates the subtitles does not understand those accents well. Hilarity ensues.

omg no! That's too on-point...

I was just watching the livestream of the starboard primary mirror wing deployment.

"And we have a fully deployed JWST observatory".

The main JWST page now has a pointer to a Mirror Segment Deployment Tracker.

It looks like they are about half-way through the ten-day deployment sequence, and most of the 18 mirrors are only 6 mm short of their deployed positions. At launch their stowed position was 12.5 mm away from deployment.

The telescope is almost 90% of the distance out to L2.

IMAGE(https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/assets/images/mirrorMoves/mirrorAlignmentTracker-1-16-22-1-1400px.png)

How long will the final deployment take? 6 mm doesn't sound like much, but I know they'll have to calibrate everything and that is whatll take months, right?

About a millimeter a day, says the website. Then, they take pictures focused on each mirror in turn, then groups, then the whole thing.

Watched ISS fly over from my living room tonight. Something like 88 degree pass tonight so easy to see. Nice to not have to go outside in the cold.

Robear wrote:

About a millimeter a day, says the website. Then, they take pictures focused on each mirror in turn, then groups, then the whole thing.

Well, now all the mirrors are fully deployed except for the two special ones (A3 and A6). Those still have 8 mm to go.

Maybe it's my imagination, but the mirror deployment seemed to happen a little faster than promised.

IMAGE(https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/assets/images/mirrorMoves/mirrorAlignmentTracker-1-18-22-3-1400px.png)