Slashdot Mirror
Triana Mothballed
jessemckinney writes "Apparently, the US congress of last year cut the funding of this great satellite project after it was finished. It will now take millions of dollars (us) to refuel and recalibrate the instruments. Why do politicians have to kill great science projects for their own political vandettas?"
To take pictures of the Earth.
...*sniff*
*sniff* that's so.... Oprah
Al Gore could have downloaded openuniverse and saved us alot of money.
Who says they did? My understanding of the article is that no funding was actually cut from the Triana project itself -- the satelite is done. In fact,
Moan all you want about NASA being underfunded, but this doesn't sound at all like a matter of anyone taking "political revenge" at Al Gore's project. NASA has to prioritize, and they have.
Personally, I question why the space station (a run-down tenement in orbit! whoo hoo!) is more important than this climate-research vessel. But I don't smell a political attack here.
Triana was originally built as a political favor. I won't mention to whom, but you might guess by the nickname it was given of "Goresat".
There was originally no science planned. Only when scrutiny increased to it were some basic instruments added to make the excuse of it being a research tool float.
Just a heads up, the only thing Triana would have really done was take pictures of the earth for posting on a website to 'make people feel better about the earth'. For a working alternative, please visit the NOAA website where legions of weather satellites already do this 24x7.
Triana was a waste of a rocket launch. Hopefully the chassis can be adapted to perform some real science.
So did Slashdot. Yesterday.
Frankly, If we want to see the earth from space 'cuz it looks k00l, we should do it ourselves
Amateur Satellite geeks rule. And can do it a hell of a lot cheaper than Triana.
If the "Vandellas" find out you called them "Vandettas" (sounds like a Volkswagen), you're liable to find yourself with "Nowhere to Run", and worried about something worse than the current "Heatwave", perhaps finding yourself sinking in "Quicksand".
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
YOur point is true, but this particular item is a 'screw everything ever associated with Gore' from the republicans. The housing cost will cost more(eventually) then sending it up.
Not to mention how little of a percentage the nasa budget is, but it still gets cut
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
According to someone I know on the project, they might have a launch opportunity for Triana if they send the shuttle up to recover UARS.
I heard on the radio this morning (KCBS) that there was a proposal under consideration in the House to mothball two carrier fleets(!) to divert money to Missle Defense. The Joint Chiefs were not amused. I wouldn't be, either. That's the House for you.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"Vandettas" aside, (they sang back-up for Martha, right?), this project doesn't inspire a huge amount of confidence in me. It started out as a stunt by Al Gore, and while scientists may have come up with useful uses for it (which I'm not qualified to judge), I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about a project that was designed to do something useful in the first place.
My sense this is like the biology experiments they do on the space shuttle, something I am qualified to judge. They're worth doing, given that the shuttle is already going but they're hardly a justification for the shuttle program.
As an aside, which may make you feel better, I heard a talk recently by one of the leaders of the Chandra telescope project. Asked about the security of funding, he said that while legislators aren't going to give more money, they pretty much all appreciate astronomy and space and the stream of money isn't in jeopardy at all.
We already saw this, btw.
As for the project, there was clearly nothing vaguely scientific in the original plan but it was subsequently expanded to include a whole host of "scientific" things to encourage its approval. Of course, with the increase in things it needed to accomplish, the price went up. It's hardly surprising that a pet project like this got cut.
Dancin Santa
Building a $120M satellite just to get a constantly updating view of the earth? Couldn't they save a ton by buying one of those very detailed 3D models of the Earth they use in sci-fi flicks and hooking it up to a giant renderfarm? They'd just need make sure they chose a model that doesn't leave out New Zealand.
Sure, it wouldn't be "the real thing," but I say, no harm, no foul. The populace would be happy because they could tune into "The Planet Channel" any time, and be filled with that warm fuzzy "I am a speck of dust" feeling. The Democrats and Republicans would be happy because they could spend their half of the 120 mil on whatever they wanted (the former on supplying clean needles to welfare mothers, the latter on black ops research to create a clone army of genetically-enhanced Richard Nixons.)
And nobody would be any the wiser.
I don't know the value of the other projects they put on this bird, but Gore's picture from space was sentimental but stupid.
I stll think we should do it, but we should never have spent $120M on the satellite and more on the now scrubbed launch.
We already have cameras taking pictures of the earth all the time. The weather sats and other instruments are constantly recording the earth.
As such it would cost a very small amount to develop software to integrate those pictures to generate an image of what the planet would look like from any point, including L1. With enough work you could get it so you could not tell the difference.
Yes, it wouldn't be "real" to some people. But it would be true, and that's real enough for me.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Why do politicians have to kill great science projects for their own political vandettas?
:)
Sometimes a question just answers itself.
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
...because those pesky scientists would most likely use it to gather evidence about inconvenient issues like global warming and pollution. In the mean time, the money is much better spent on that trillion dollar orbiting erector set.