Space and Astronomy in general

"First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" -S.R. Hadden

Just kidding, of course - good for them!

dewalist wrote:

"First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" -S.R. Hadden

What does that guy know. He stuck his head in an alien egg and gave birth to a chestburster.

My favorite federal contracting story is from a guy who worked on the F16 back in the day.

He and his colleagues write up all the requirements and a USAF general comes in, picks up the large file, which is basically a big book, and drops it directly on the desk. Crash!

"Not big enough. Double the size of this thing."

"Sir, why? We've got everything in there."

"This thing needs to be twice as big. As big as the New York phone book so that when I drop it on some politician's desk, it's so loud they will think, 'These guys did their homework!' And they'll never read something so big."

They fluffed it up 100% bigger.

I guess Northrop when they developed the F-20 Tigershark back in the 80s didn't fluff up their large file.

Yeah, the Pentagon is a terrible example of how government actually operates, with (I would say) DHS and VA coming in next. Most US government organizations are highly competent, hate to waste money (they don't have enough of it in the first place) and are consequently well-run and staffed by diligent people who believe in what they do.

The problems of the Pentagon stem from a long culture of "everything we do is important, everything is secret, we need to pay whatever is asked for it". But when you get down to the second and third echelons and lower, you start to see the excellence shining out. The fact that the Pentagon has never balanced its books belies the fact that we have the best military in the world. We need to fix the issues at the top and realize that the warfighters are actually hobbled by those generals and GS-14s who are protecting waste, fraud and abuse.

DHS, though, that's a hot mess top to bottom, side to side, and inside out. It needs to be torn back apart with a non-political organizing system put in place (like the DNI is for the rest of the intelligence community). And VA, well, the fact that organizations like Wounded Warriors are even needed is an incredibly shameful testament to their underfunding and mismanagement.

But these organizations are exceptions to the huge steps forward since the reforms of the '90's that the majority of the Federal Government has implemented faithfully over the years. After all, if they had not, Trump would have run roughshod over them in his first term, and not to spend 2 years planning his subversion if he is elected again. That very need, of detailed planning to take down the structure of the bureaucracy and turn it political again, like back in the early 19th century, speaks to the resilience, honor and selflessness of most government bureaucrats these days.

I guess Northrop when they developed the F-20 Tigershark back in the 80s didn't fluff up their large file.

Loved that aircraft and the F-5 it was based on

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Team Clears Hurdle to Access Remaining Bennu Sample

Curation team members at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston have successfully removed the two fasteners from the sampler head that had prevented the remainder of OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid Bennu sample material from being accessed.

Steps now are underway to complete the disassembly of the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM, head to reveal the rest of the rocks and dust delivered by NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission.

Out of this world!

Meh, looks a bit dirty.

I can’t wait for someone to make a video zooming in to the dust to reveal a tiny fossil skeleton.

Eh, a wash and a few tumbles with a good abrasive, they'll polish up real nice! #Stage4Capitalism

They found a tire and rim on an asteroid?
Talk about shooting for the moon!

Oh and I'd wager they'd find some dead sea scroll bits in there!

My boss sent this around to our staff today.

Yarr.

Guess they didn't want to explain General Relativity to little kids, but pretty good!

Or margins of error.

Or elevation.

Still it's a good intro for their target audience.

BTW, if you want to watch the partial or full eclipse from the US, the one in April, think about getting your eye and camera/telescope protection before the prices soar.

OR just buy a few hundred mirrors. by the time the light hits the last one, it should be safe to look at directly.

Robear wrote:

BTW, if you want to watch the partial or full eclipse from the US, the one in April, think about getting your eye and camera/telescope protection before the prices soar.

Still have mine in a box somewhere labeled "Do not open til 2024."

Pour one out for Ingenuity. It broke one of its blades.

Its five flight mission lasted for 72 flights.

Japan's Moon lander comes back to life

I don't think the article said this explicitly, but it appears that as the sun moved farther west over the course of the lunar day the solar panels finally saw some of it. The face-plant orientation of the lander left the solar panels pointed westward instead of upward.

They have a few days to collect some Science points before lunar dusk. The lander was not designed to survive lunar night so is not expected to resume operations at the next lunar dawn, 14 days later.

Edit: add BBC coverage

Better than nothing.

Robear wrote:

Better than nothing.

Goodnight Moon

IMAGE(https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_1315/71b4f5d90c345e8ae8625d98ebd347d1.jpg)

This is a Monday afternoon (April 8 2024), so I'll be at work, probably watching the NASA livestream while people think I am paying attention to the weekly team meeting.

Girl, same.

April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Here's what you need to know -Smarter Every Day 295

Hey they figured out what is wrong with Voyager and might be able to fix it!

After decoding the spacecraft's response, the engineers have found the source of the problem: The FDS's memory has been corrupted.

"The team suspects that a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory isn't working," NASA said in a blog post Wednesday (March 13). "Engineers can't determine with certainty what caused the issue. Two possibilities are that the chip could have been hit by an energetic particle from space or that it simply may have worn out after 46 years."

Although it may take several months, the engineers say they can find a workaround to run the FDS without the fried chip — restoring the spacecraft's messaging output and enabling it to continue to send readable information from outside our solar system.

I don't know man... I think the aliens from the Dark Planet who repurposed Voyager's electronics might not be pleased with this so-called "workaround."

Several months to get a workaround? Sheesh. They oughta just send someone up there to hot-swap the part.