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Last of the Great Observatories to Launch

Posted by michael on from the eye-in-the-sky dept.

jqpublic writes "The last in NASA's Great Observatory Program, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), is set to launch in the wee hours on Monday. The launch can viewed live on NASA's Countdown web site. Interestingly, SIRTF will not be in Earth orbit, but will drift away from Earth by about 15 million kilometers per year. This allows the telescope to cool to very low temperatures (30K), which reduces dramatically the amount of cryogens it needs to carry."

19 comments

  1. Norms Observation by Yanray · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe now we will finally be able to see that exact duplicate of the earth orbiting opposite us.

    Maybe thier they will all spell just like me.

    Could it be the Planet of the Apes?
    \. *.*

    --
    --"Sorry for the inconvience." Gods Last Words to his Creation
    DNA, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
    1. Re:Norms Observation by RCO · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought that was where we were...

      If not, why do I keep meeting all these hairy women? Oh god, they're lying to me, ahhhhhhg, now I need a shower.

      --
      'And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo Every day you meet quite a few...'
    2. Re:Norms Observation by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, it'll be Gor.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  2. Crash coming soon by henrygb · · Score: 2, Funny

    If SIRTF will drift away from Earth on a heliocentric orbit at the rate of ~ 0.1 AU/year then after about 31.4 years it may crash into Earth from the other side.

  3. It's new name... by Lendrick · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Generally, they name these observatories after famous deceased astronomers. I'm betting they'll call this one the Sagan Telescope, or somesuch.

    1. Re:It's new name... by baywulf · · Score: 3, Funny

      The only problem is that when they name it the Sagan telescope, Sagan will roll over in his grave and sue them. They will promptly have to rename it "butthead astromoner."

    2. Re:It's new name... by buttahead · · Score: 1

      hey now... i could make millions in endorsments...

    3. Re:It's new name... by faxafloi · · Score: 3, Informative

      The SIRTF Science Center had a contest to name SIRTF. They'll be announcing the name in a few months.

      --
      Exit, pursued by a bear.
    4. Re:It's new name... by mph · · Score: 1
      Generally, they name these observatories after famous deceased astronomers.
      Except, of course, when they toot their own horn by naming them after NASA bureaucrats, a break in tradition that was not particularly well-received among astronomers.
  4. the last... by eglamkowski · · Score: 2, Funny

    The last in NASA's Great Observatory Program,

    The year is 1987 and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes....
    :-)

    --
    Government IS the problem.
  5. 15 mil km/yr?1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
    1000 mph is not exactly "drifting"....

    But, I guess on a solar system scale, it's not exactly speeding, either

  6. Why wait till after the launch? by Tharn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They will be announcing the name about 4 months after the launch. Can you imagine if they named it after Dr.Sagan and then it blew up and fell on Tampa and killed people? In 50 years the name "Sagan" would be associated with the tragedy, instead of the man.

  7. Great Observatories by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative


    It sure took them long enough to launch *half* of the GO-IR-telescope. The original Great Observatories IR telescope was redesigned several years ago into two less expensive versions, one in shuttle serviceable orbit, one in far earth orbit. The serviceable one was cancelled, and the other one was redesigned to become the current SIRTF

    There's a problem with NASA currently though, they ditched Compton, compromising the promise of the Great Observatories series. Without the Gamma Ray Observatory, they can't target an astronomical phenomenon with the full spectrum that was available before. But C-GRO was designed to be shuttle serviceable just like HST... instead of getting rid of it, they could have just replaced its failing gyros (like they've done on HST), so we could have a more complete picture of the universe.

    The current design seems to be rather lack lustre, in making the telescope only accessible to an annulus of space... rotating solar panels would solve the problem (with rotating radiators)

    HST, CGRO, CXRT, SIRTF...

    JWST, ???, ???, ???
    Is HST the only Great Observatory being replaced?

    1. Re:Great Observatories by pla · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is HST the only Great Observatory being replaced?

      You have to keep in mind that NASA depends on public funding, and that "the public", not to mention the current US president, have absolutely no clue about what counts as good science vs smoke and mirrors.

      Hubble takes the most "pretty" pictures, thus people can ooh and aah over all the great "science" it does. Compton may have discovered features of our universe that blow away anything Hubble has done in terms of importance (such as the isotropism in GRBs), but how do you make that into a pretty picture? So, it gets axed, and we'll replace Hubble to create even more eye-candy for the public. Perhaps, if we get lucky, NASA can pad the budget on JW enough to launch a few "real" missions over its lifetime.

      Hmm, reading that, I sound overly critical of Hubble - I don't mean to, I realize it serves a number of very useful and scientifically-valid purposes. I just see its popularity (and the answer to your question) as relating more to its flashyness than to its utility.

  8. That's a big satellite by p3d0 · · Score: 1

    The thing that blows my mind is how they managed to make it so much larger than the Earth.

    --
    Patrick Doyle
    I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  9. Retrolaunchers - the better way by Animats · · Score: 2, Interesting
    If we still had the Saturn V or the Proton, launching these would be easier and cheaper.

    As some astronomer pointed out at the time, the repair mission for the Hubble cost more than all the proposed ground-based observatories put together, like the Very Large Telescope and the California Extremely Large Telescope.

    NASA - The government version of Hollywood.

    1. Re:Retrolaunchers - the better way by WetCat · · Score: 1

      AFAIK, Proton is still available...