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All of NASA will be on sedatives until this thing unfolds itself successfully. It's even more scary than the Curiosity sky crane landing system.
by rootbear 11y ago
All of NASA will be on sedatives until this thing unfolds itself successfully. It's even more scary than the Curiosity sky crane landing system.
- topspin 11y agoJWST seems like too much for NASA given the record. Galileo's high-gain antenna deployment failure, Hubble optics flaws, numerous near fatal problems with GP-B, MCO burning up... all of these and more speak to NASA's track record with complex space observatories. At L2 JWST will be beyond the reach of astronauts at the time it's launched, so all this stuff; cryocoolers, folded sunshield, folded reflector, etc. have to `just work' with no opportunity for repairs. It just doesn't seem likely. I desperately want it to work, but if it were up to me I'd trade it in for a large but mechanically simple optical interferometer, launched by spacex or whomever, bolted together at the IIS and operated from a serviceable orbit. That would be a lot closer to what one should expect of NASA.
- rootbear 11y agoI don't think it's possible to do the science they want JWST to do unless you get out to L2 or beyond. They are basically measuring heat, and Earth puts out a lot of that. And they want to be in an orbit that doesn't pass into shadow, for reasons of solar power. I understand, and somewhat share, your concerns, but JWST is designed the way it is because that's how it has to be done to accomplish its goals.