On Jun 27, 12:54*pm, BradGuth wrote:
For as little as another two cents, what do we get?

Perhaps all we need in addition to the spendy and performance limited
CoRoT is TRACEe3 (1000 fold better resolution) at less than a third
the cost, or perhaps three TRACEe3 observatories for roughly the same
cost as one CoRoT.

The original TRACE of only 250 kg (still functioning) was one of those
fast-track developed satellite, as a seriously dirt cheap polar-
orbital solar observatory, deployed by that little and costly Pegasus
XL, so thereby the R&D for accomplishing a thousand fold optical/
imaging improvement by the exact same team should be as equally quick
and dirt cheap, although unavoidably heavier and too large of package
for another spendy launch via Pegasus XL.

TRACEe3 at perhaps a mass of as little as 500 kg1000 kg should have
no problems whatsoever looking directly at the Sirius star/solar
system. *With its mirror optics, greatly extended focal length (which
adds relatively little mass) and newer CCD imager could extend its
observing spectrum well into far/extreme UVc, although the quality of
telephoto optics already utilized by the existing TRACE along with
those narrow bandpass filters would still be more than sufficient for
UVa through IR imaging.

Ultra flat black interior coatings via nano carbon tubes (ultra
lampblack) should also improve their imaging results of TRACEe3 and
most any other optics, and we do in fact need a replacement for the
existing TRACE anyway because its maneuvering fuel is running low, as
well as any one of its essential gyros or rad-hard processors could
fail at most any time. *A decade worth of terrific CCD improvements
and better optics as well as faster rad-hard processors that are more
energy efficient is only going to make this upgrade easier.
*http://trace.lmsal.com/
*http://directory.eoportal.org/presen...129/10301.html

Possibly an upgraded Shtil Launch Vehicle (in Russian surplus
inventory along with a pair of small surplus SRBs) could deploy a
TRACEe3 payload for as little as $1000/kg.
*http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/...ssia/shtil.htm

Cost per kg from Earth to Low earth orbit (unmanned)
*http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?t...ort_estimation

How much is the all-inclusive (meaning birth to grave) CoRoT actually
costing us? *Can it even look at Sirius without over-saturating its
observing instrument?
*http://www.corot.de/Download/Corot_s...it_English.pdf

Apparently CoRoT must have been terribly spendy (including its launch
via the Soyuz launch vehicle), because nowhere has any accounting of
their satellite observatory R&D plus its mission cost *been mentioned
in the above documant. *However, if it can’t even look at the stellar
vibrance and seismic or vibrating/oscillating activity of Sirius, then
what good is it?

I found one old blog suggesting the 640 kg CoRoT investment was up to
170 million euros ($225M). *That doesn’t seem all that cheap for just
another orbiting telescope, and probably that reported amount didn’t
even include its honest share of the spendy four stage launch or the
annual/decade budget for gathering and publishing its data. *A TRACEe3
could have been accomplished in less than a forth the time, and for as
little as one cent per human global population, as well as deployed
and operated for a decade on perhaps less than another one cent per
human population (with loot to spare). *TRACEe3 for two cents seems
like a pretty darn good deal, and all three TRACEe3s for roughly a
nickel per global population, seems especially nifty when we could see
the extremely vibrant photosphere of Sirius A and possibly even a few
actual pixels worth of Sirius B, as well as a thousand fold better
resolution of our own sun (might be too good of a look-see).

Speaking of accomplishing dirt cheap, quick and downright nifty
missions that could have been and should have been. *It seems we
already own the shuttle bay SAR imaging equipment, that with minor
upgrades and getting that already spendy sucker deployed around Venus
could yield 0.75 meter resolution (100 fold better than the original
Magellan mission, plus another two fold improved dynamic range), or
perhaps as good as 0.15 meter if doing our moon from 50 km.

Lord GAO, forbid we should merely scrap everything that’s bought and
paid for with our hard earned loot, instead of reutilizing, because we
sure as hell wouldn’t want the general public that’s paying for
everything and in debt to the tune of trillions to ever get their hard
earned moneys worth, much less discover whatever’s happening via
intelligent other life that’s nicely existing/coexisting on Venus.

What would our President BHO and his crack team of mostly young
advisers do?

*~ Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth BG / “Guth Usenet”

For those of you using Google Groups or an unfiltered newsreader:

Just because my resident kosher shadow can not stand the thought of
anyone having and sharing an honest thought or idea is perhaps why
he's on his deathbed, miserable and doing as much media damage-control
as he can muster, and as always unpoliced by his own kind, and as per
usual full of as much hate as only his faith-based friends and Hitler
would understand.

Imagine a wore kind of hell on Earth, with this kind of perverted and
kosher biased leadership at the helm, sort of makes republicans, their
Zionist Nazi friends and of course the likes of their private Federal
Reserve and SEC approved Ponzi Madoff seem rather tame.

~ BG