The Astronomy Thread
- Thread starter Araxen
- Start date
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
pharmakos
soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
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meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Juno was scheduled to be sent to it's demise in Jupiter's cloud tops in July. It's mission has reportedly been extended until July 2021.
NASA's $1 billion Jupiter mission was slated to meet a fiery end this summer — but the Juno probe is getting a critical life extension
NASA's $1 billion Jupiter mission was slated to meet a fiery end this summer — but the Juno probe is getting a critical life extension
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meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Brad2770
Avatar of War Slayer
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Kiroy
Marine Biologist
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Feel like we've had almost the exact same announcement form nasa on mars every year for the past decade.
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meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Melvin
Blackwing Lair Raider
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It's been "announced" so many times now that I didn't even click the link when I first saw it. I have to assume that there's something new and interesting about the quantity or location or specific type of chemistry or some combination of the above that makes this discovery worth mentioning. Maybe it takes a chemistry or biology degree to get super excited about the specifics of these new details though?
I'm gonna watch that video while I eat dinner and drink a couple beers, maybe I'll care by the end of it.
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Del
Vyemm Raider
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Melvin
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Yep. Video confirms that the newest science data from Curiosity is an important evolutionary step forward toward a more complete understanding about where and how life originated billions of years ago. There are literally billions of worlds in the universe where life may, or may not have, or may possibly in the future, exist, and we Homo Sapiens have scratched the surface of approximately three of them.
My hot take on this hubbub about Martian organic molecules is that it's a crystal clear case of NASA needing their budget significantly increased so they can work more efficiently. There's a huge amount of overhead involved in designing, testing, refining, retesting, etc, the cutting edge technology that gets built and sent to Mars, and they could have put two rovers of Curiosity's design on Mars with less than double the funding. Unfortunately I bet they'll make the same mistake in 2020 when they launch the next single solitary rover.
My hot take on this hubbub about Martian organic molecules is that it's a crystal clear case of NASA needing their budget significantly increased so they can work more efficiently. There's a huge amount of overhead involved in designing, testing, refining, retesting, etc, the cutting edge technology that gets built and sent to Mars, and they could have put two rovers of Curiosity's design on Mars with less than double the funding. Unfortunately I bet they'll make the same mistake in 2020 when they launch the next single solitary rover.
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Kiroy
Marine Biologist
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They need to stop designing their own rockets and craft from scratch and just focus on making rovers for science missions and spend 1000x less on transport by using space-x and others. They don't need more money they need less waste and bloat.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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As usual, the main problem isn't NASA, it's Congress & Senate. As long as the appropriation committees will consider NASA as a pork barrel rather than an end, you'll get Senate Launch Systems redux.
(there was a budget line a year or two ago that dictated that NASA should research small rocket engines, to the tune of a few dozens M$. Funnily enough the only company that was doing small engines was on the district of the guy who pushed this "opportunity")
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Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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Malinatar
Lord Nagafen Raider
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khorum
Murder Apologist
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The USAF just certified the Falcon Heavy for launch contracts AND just signed up for a FH launch in 2020. That's like shockingly quick...NASA still hasn't committed so much as a cargo SLS mission for the Heavy.
DOD contracts are literally ULA's mealticket and they cannot HOPE to outbid SpaceX on future contracts on costs--and now--on specs. It's curious if ULA holds onto some smaller launches in the future tho.
UPI said:
DOD contracts are literally ULA's mealticket and they cannot HOPE to outbid SpaceX on future contracts on costs--and now--on specs. It's curious if ULA holds onto some smaller launches in the future tho.
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