asmithmd1

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61.
Webb Telescope launch delayed at least 4 days(blogs.nasa.gov)
3 points by asmithmd1 5y ago|2 comments
62.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
The JWST will almost certainly fail. Here is that video re-edited to highlight the unprecedented risk they are taking on: https://youtu.be/t-O_jFWX98A
63.
29 Days on the Edge: The James Webb Space Telescope(youtube.com)
2 points by asmithmd1 5y ago|1 comments
64.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
Mitt Romney pointed out that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary. Ultra high income individuals may pay more In dollars, but since much of their income is passive, they pay at a lower rate.
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by asmithmd1 5y ago
The author did not mention another contributing factor that let people quit jobs - the Affordable Care Act. Before it was passed you could not buy health insurance at any price if you had a pre-existing condition. Even with good health, ins
66.
The Nail-Biting Journey of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Is About to Begin(scientificamerican.com)
4 points by asmithmd1 5y ago|0 comments
67.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
There are about 50 deployment actions that have to occur. If everything works perfectly, great. But if something hangs up or gets tangled, the people running the mission are blind when trying to debug the problem
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by asmithmd1 5y ago
Yes I accept, but how about a definition of delivering a picture better than what is currently available? I really want the Webb to work and would like this bet to somehow hedge my happiness. I would be happy to pay $1000 if it somehow cont
69.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
My thinking is the solar shield gets stuck/torn on deployment. Among the numerous bad decisions, they have no cameras watching the deployment
70.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Launch Delayed to December(space.com)
120 points by asmithmd1 5y ago|72 comments
71.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
I am not sure how you know what my intuitions are. My insights come from reading the "design trades" papers about Webb published over the last 20 years. Here is a good place to start: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org&
72.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
The opposite is true. Hubble is a stripped down version of a Keyhole spy satellite that was already in production. One of the major repairs (replace solar panels) was required because of long duration exposures used in astronomy that are no
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by asmithmd1 5y ago
The problem comes down to diffuse leadership. The mars lander sky crane was a crazy idea. The head of JPL raised his hand in one of the early design reviews and said so, then drilled down into why it was a reasonable solution and how they w
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by asmithmd1 5y ago
The original sin is the lack of will to make the Webb nuclear powered. Since it is solar powered, it has to be in the sun. Since it has to be in the sun, it needs a huge shield. Since it is solar powered, it must be passively cooled to save
75.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
I have not gotten any offers to take the other side of my 10:1 offer...
76.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
I have been following this project for years and it has had one embarrassing mis-step after another. Here is the last independent review board assessment from 2018 where they found over 300 single points of failure that would doom the teles
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by asmithmd1 5y ago
I really hope they will be able to get spectrographs of exo-planet atmospheres, but there is almost no chance that the Webb telescope will deliver meaningful science. The Project leaders are already starting to telegraph that message: http
78.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
I don't think there is any need to encrypt traffic coming from the telescope. One of the (many) compromises in the design is using 26Ghz radios that will be so low power that the only way to downlink data is using the huge Deep Space N
79.
by asmithmd1 5y ago
Anyone want that other side of a bet that the Webb telescope will not be doing any science in 2022? Even if it launches, it will be a miracle if it works. They are using so many brand new technologies on a spacecraft operating 3X farther aw
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by asmithmd1 5y ago
Is it? I am asking a real question. How many people are saved by rapid police response vs. killed inadvertently? Where is there data that could be used to answer that question?
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by asmithmd1 5y ago
That is what I thought. I sent this picture of a bridge carrying I-95N to MassDot a year ago: https://imgur.com/gallery/ZSMg1pZ They cleaned up the chunks of concrete that had fallen from the beam.
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by asmithmd1 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect The parent is referring to trying something that has been used for centuries before trying something that has been used for years.
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by asmithmd1 6y ago
Lets say they cabled a Goodyear blimp to each side of the ship One Goodyear blimp is about 5,000 m^3 and a meter^3 of seawater is about a ton, so that gives us 10,000 tones of lifting force!. The ship weighs 220,000 so it will be riding abo
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Burst pipe shuts National Data Buoy Ctr, no time estimate to restore service(ndbc.noaa.gov)
2 points by asmithmd1 6y ago|0 comments
85.
by asmithmd1 6y ago
Also, when an obvious market failure kills dozens of people, “free markets fix everything” is not correct.
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by asmithmd1 6y ago
They may have delivered low prices, but it was at the cost of ignoring handling “black swan” events. As the ERCOT CEO said, If they had not blacked out millions of customers, grid and consumer equipment would have been destroyed - wiping ou
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by asmithmd1 6y ago
Ah yes, the appeal to authority argument. I can’t have anything valuable to say because I am not an authority. I am sure running a power grid with thousands of producers and millions of consumers is incredibly complex. Did you know every wi
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by asmithmd1 6y ago
If your job is to establish a stable market between producers and consumers, and the market price you set swings positive and negative, through 6 orders of magnitude in just 72 hour...you are not doing a good job.
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by asmithmd1 6y ago
Sure, sure, $9,000/MWhr is a sweet reward that was being offered way back on Wednesday. Do you know what the clearing price is right now? -$31.65 Yes, they are CHARGING power plant operators who rushed to bring capacity online: http:
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by asmithmd1 6y ago
I was not sure I was reading the map correctly, but it is true. If you rushed to get a power plant online because they were begging for power and offering $9k/MWhr, they are now charging you $30. http://www.ercot.com/co

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