Not true. The point of the article is Ultra Deep Field imagery. Doing this requires focusing on a single point in space for long periods of time (In this case, 11.3 days) While not theoretically impossible to accomplish on earth, this would require building nearly identical telescopes worldwide and then coordinating their exposures to account for the rotation of the earth and then adapting for more variables than I have the patience to explain. For all practical purposes this is not going to happen in our lifetimes
Furthermore this highly unlikely arrangement will never have the resolution, versatility, and usefulness for other types of astronomy as the Hubble.
The horrible truth is that we are simply losing the collective will to achieve great things in the name of achieving cockamamie political boondoggles, both terrestrial and otherwise.
We had the same thing happen to us. An employee of another division talked like mad to get us to let her design and host the website and then 1 year later (after all our data was on her site) this person showed up one day and told us if we didn't pay her she would yank the site. Our director was the wrong person to make that threat to. Long story short, the site WAS yanked and we had to rebuild a new one. If we could have thrown her in jail(or worse) we would have.
Only too true. The brutal
truth of Capitalism is that it is efficient but completely merciless. It is only balanced regulated Capitalism that works. The balance of free
enterprise on the one hand and Anti-trust laws, standards for products, and
Tort Laws on the other. Too much
regulation strangles business and we no economic growth; too little regulation
and we all become slaves.
As time
goes on and the models for businesses change, regulation has to keep up. We have yet to find the balance of import
restrictions vs. free trade for a global economy, if there is one, that gives
low prices AND keeps unemployment down.
The idea
that capitalism is a magic cure-all that works all by itself is folly.
Yet more fear mongering. His whole premise is that magnetic fields cause the build up of free iron that initiate a process that causes irreversible cell damage. He tested this by exposing rat cells for 24 and 48 hours at a time. A) 24 hours of continuous exposure is NOT the same as 5 minutes of exposure each day; the free iron will never have time to accumulate under his own theory. B) unless my calculations are wrong he is using a ten amp electric razor.
but hey, if people want shielded appliances for that can be sold for twice as much as regular appliances I will be happy to build them.
My family has had several of its members working for NASA
for the past 30 years. We have seen NASA
locked in the same vicious cycle for the past 7 presidents, it goes something
like this:
1. Congress tells NASA to cut budget.
2. Congress says no Centers, no
matter how useless can be closed.
3. Directors of centers give actual job of cutting budget to
middle managers(Who haven't done any engineering in
decades)
4. Middle managers vote to fire everybody but themselves(What a surprise!) that is fire all the engineers
under them and farm out the actual engineering to contractors.
5. Make wild claims of success
6. Repeat after next election cycle.
This has been repeated now so many times that NASA doesnt do
any actual engineering any more.
Furthermore many of these MMs farm out even the writing of the specs!
It is the opposite of what private industry does which is to
fire the MMs and keep the engineers(Flatten the organizational
chart, keep the Indians fire the chiefs, etc.)
There are so many reasons why this is bad that I wont list
them all here (the average Slashdot reader knows them anyway) but the most
devastating effect is zero accumulation of organizational knowledge. Constructing
space vehicles is very technique oriented; the devil is all in the details.
That is the difference between success and failure may be knowing
that the lubricating grease on the control moment gyro needs to be of a
specific viscosity and quality. (Speaking hypothetically, no
slur to ISS, really). Going
outside of these parameters means that the CMG fails which means that the
spacecraft cant change attitude which means that you have a 100 M dollar piece
of junk.
This has been has been documented at NASA ad nauseum but the basic organizational structure prevents
accumulation of knowledge. Which means
that we pay to reengineer every time will build something.
Now add in ?Low bid always wins? and see what happens. An experienced contractor who has built
spacecraft now knows that they have NASA over a barrel because they are the
only ones who know how to build what they want.
So they jack up the price. The
bid then is won by the inexperienced contractor who now has to learn everything
all over again. Repeat.
The solution? Do the same thing private industry does: Keep the Indians, fire the chiefs. Prevent the loss of organizational knowledge
at all cost. Begin the slow process of
knowledge accumulation so that eventually the price of space vehicle
construction will come down.
Slashdot Mirror
Saw this late but couldn't resist.
Not true. The point of the article is Ultra Deep Field imagery. Doing this requires focusing on a single point in space for long periods of time (In this case, 11.3 days) While not theoretically impossible to accomplish on earth, this would require building nearly identical telescopes worldwide and then coordinating their exposures to account for the rotation of the earth and then adapting for more variables than I have the patience to explain. For all practical purposes this is not going to happen in our lifetimes
Furthermore this highly unlikely arrangement will never have the resolution, versatility, and usefulness for other types of astronomy as the Hubble.
The horrible truth is that we are simply losing the collective will to achieve great things in the name of achieving cockamamie political boondoggles, both terrestrial and otherwise.
We had the same thing happen to us. An employee of another division talked like mad to get us to let her design and host the website and then 1 year later (after all our data was on her site) this person showed up one day and told us if we didn't pay her she would yank the site.
Our director was the wrong person to make that threat to.
Long story short, the site WAS yanked and we had to rebuild a new one.
If we could have thrown her in jail(or worse) we would have.
Only too true. The brutal truth of Capitalism is that it is efficient but completely merciless. It is only balanced regulated Capitalism that works. The balance of free enterprise on the one hand and Anti-trust laws, standards for products, and Tort Laws on the other. Too much regulation strangles business and we no economic growth; too little regulation and we all become slaves.
As time goes on and the models for businesses change, regulation has to keep up. We have yet to find the balance of import restrictions vs. free trade for a global economy, if there is one, that gives low prices AND keeps unemployment down.
The idea that capitalism is a magic cure-all that works all by itself is folly.
Yet more fear mongering. His whole premise is that magnetic fields cause the build up of free iron that initiate a process that causes irreversible cell damage. He tested this by exposing rat cells for 24 and 48 hours at a time.
A) 24 hours of continuous exposure is NOT the same as 5 minutes of exposure each day; the free iron will never have time to accumulate under his own theory.
B) unless my calculations are wrong he is using a ten amp electric razor.
but hey, if people want shielded appliances for that can be sold for twice as much as regular appliances I will be happy to build them.
My family has had several of its members working for NASA for the past 30 years. We have seen NASA locked in the same vicious cycle for the past 7 presidents, it goes something like this:
1. Congress tells NASA to cut budget.
2. Congress says no Centers, no matter how useless can be closed.
3. Directors of centers give actual job of cutting budget to middle managers(Who haven't done any engineering in decades)
4. Middle managers vote to fire everybody but themselves(What a surprise!) that is fire all the engineers under them and farm out the actual engineering to contractors.
5. Make wild claims of success
6. Repeat after next election cycle.
This has been repeated now so many times that NASA doesnt do any actual engineering any more. Furthermore many of these MMs farm out even the writing of the specs!
It is the opposite of what private industry does which is to fire the MMs and keep the engineers(Flatten the organizational chart, keep the Indians fire the chiefs, etc.)
There are so many reasons why this is bad that I wont list them all here (the average Slashdot reader knows them anyway) but the most devastating effect is zero accumulation of organizational knowledge. Constructing space vehicles is very technique oriented; the devil is all in the details. That is the difference between success and failure may be knowing that the lubricating grease on the control moment gyro needs to be of a specific viscosity and quality. (Speaking hypothetically, no slur to ISS, really). Going outside of these parameters means that the CMG fails which means that the spacecraft cant change attitude which means that you have a 100 M dollar piece of junk.
This has been has been documented at NASA ad nauseum but the basic organizational structure prevents accumulation of knowledge. Which means that we pay to reengineer every time will build something.
Now add in ?Low bid always wins? and see what happens. An experienced contractor who has built spacecraft now knows that they have NASA over a barrel because they are the only ones who know how to build what they want. So they jack up the price. The bid then is won by the inexperienced contractor who now has to learn everything all over again. Repeat.
The solution? Do the same thing private industry does: Keep the Indians, fire the chiefs. Prevent the loss of organizational knowledge at all cost. Begin the slow process of knowledge accumulation so that eventually the price of space vehicle construction will come down.
Naaah, makes too much sense.
EWR