Marina Koren has the story, with a quote from Yours Truly. It launches at 3:30 in the morning, not sure if I’ll have the gumption to get up to watch from Palm Beach (or worse, drive up to the Cape). On the other hand, if it’s clear, should be lots of Perseids visible then, since it’s a new moon.
Category Archives: Space Science
Elon And Mars
It appears that he’s getting more serious. I wonder if the topic of ability to gestate in partial gravity will be a topic?
The Perseids
They’ll occur during a new moon this month. I’ll probably be in Florida, so I may drive into the swamp to watch. In California, it’s usually pretty chilly at night in the desert.
Jupiter
Has ten more moons, for a new total of seventy nine. I’m old enough to remember when there were only four.
JWST
We expected this yesterday, but here it is:
Following an Independent Review Board report on the James Webb Space Telescope project, NASA has announced a further delay to the telescope’s anticipated launch. Coming just three months after a year-long delay to 2020, NASA now says the telescope will not be ready to launch until 2021 at the earliest and that the project will breach its $8.8 billion USD cost cap.
The cited mismanagement at NG and NASA is just staggering. The new overrun is about the amount that it was supposed to cost, in total, originally. What a programmatic disaster.
I hereby rename JWST the Jeebus Wept Sunkcost Trap
— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) June 27, 2018
[Update after noon]
Here’s the story from Jeff Foust.
[Update a while later]
This can never be allowed to happen again…. The good news is that it does not have to. On Orbit Assembly transcends the limitations around building a big telescope on the ground, shaking the hell out of it for 10 minutes, then deploying it autonomously without fail. https://t.co/lPmq4UgdVi
— Dennis Wingo (@wingod) June 27, 2018
[Thursday-morning update]
Here‘s Marina Koren’s take:
A wiring error caused workers to apply too much voltage to the spacecraft’s pressure transducers, severely damaging them. And during an acoustics test, which examines whether hardware can survive the loud sounds of launch, the fasteners designed to hold the sun shield together came loose. The incident scattered 70 bolts, and engineers scrambled to find them. They’re still looking for a few. “We’re really close to finding every one of the pieces,” Zerbuchen said.
These three errors alone resulted in a schedule delay of about 1.5 years and $600 million, Young said.
I think that’s about Northrop Grumman’s annual net income. If I were NASA, I’d tell them that if they ever want another NASA contract, they’ll eat it themselves.
[Update a while later]
Alex Witze has more, over at Nature.
Complex Organic Chemistry
For people interested in non-terrestrial life, this should be a higher priority than Europa. It’s farther away, but a much more benign radiation environment.
Methane On Mars
Tanya Harrison has the story. As always, a reminder that people who want to settle Mars should hope that we don’t find life there.
Mars Rover Rovings
For those interested, Bob Zimmerman seems to have this beat covered.
Interested In Water On Mars?
Then this post by Bob Zimmerman is for you.
Space Regulation
With the Legal Subcommittee meeting of COPUOUS in Vienna a little over a week away (I’ll be attending this year), Laura Montgomery has a new paper out, and Christopher Johnson has some thoughts, too.