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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
On Sep 13, 4:54*pm, Doug Freyburger wrote:
Didn't I read a couple of months ago that the Webb had been cancelled? Was its funding restored or do I remember wrong? A bill was voted on, and approved, that sort of recommended that its funding should be cancelled next year. But nothing is final yet. John Savard |
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
On 09/13/2011 07:21 PM, Quadibloc wrote:
On Sep 13, 4:54 pm, Doug wrote: Didn't I read a couple of months ago that the Webb had been cancelled? Was its funding restored or do I remember wrong? A bill was voted on, and approved, that sort of recommended that its funding should be cancelled next year. But nothing is final yet. Approved by only one of the two houses of Congress. Very, very far from final. |
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
On Sep 13, 8:20*pm, "Jorge R. Frank" wrote:
On 09/13/2011 07:21 PM, Quadibloc wrote: On Sep 13, 4:54 pm, Doug *wrote: Didn't I read a couple of months ago that the Webb had been cancelled? Was its funding restored or do I remember wrong? A bill was voted on, and approved, that sort of recommended that its funding should be cancelled next year. But nothing is final yet. Approved by only one of the two houses of Congress. Very, very far from final. With more progress in the construction of the JWST like this, it makes it harder to cancel, too. Remember that in addition to the mirrors being finished, there are several instruments and hardwarethat are nearing or are completed as well. I think once all the difficult stuff is done, you'll see a big improvement in how fast things come together for the spacecraft. Now is NOT the time to cancel. -Mike |
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
On Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:59:44 -0700 (PDT), Mike DiCenso
wrote: I think once all the difficult stuff is done, you'll see a big improvement in how fast things come together for the spacecraft. Well, anything would be a big improvement over their past performance (or lack thereof.) Now is NOT the time to cancel. Sure, let's reward incompetence. Again. "You're 800% over budget and five years behind schedule? No problem, here's another check courtesy the US taxpayer. Like the check style? It's the same one we used for International Space Station and the Curiosity rover. Nice, eh?" This HAS to stop. Make an example out of Webb or we'll never see another Big Ticket program from NASA come in on budget again. Guaranteed. They'll have absolutely no incentive to propose realistic budgets and schedules, knowing NASA will always bail them out. Brian |
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
On 9/14/2011 7:52 PM, Brian Thorn wrote:
This HAS to stop. Make an example out of Webb or we'll never see another Big Ticket program from NASA come in on budget again. Guaranteed. They'll have absolutely no incentive to propose realistic budgets and schedules, knowing NASA will always bail them out. I still think (looking at the design) that it was a major mistake to partner with the Tholians on this thing. Pat |
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
Since JWST operates in the infrared part of the spectrum (like the
WISE satellite), would it be useful for finding Jupiter-sized (or smaller) planets in or near our solar system or brown dwarf type celestial bodies? |
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
On Sep 14, 9:52*pm, Brian Thorn wrote:
This HAS to stop. Make an example out of Webb or we'll never see another Big Ticket program from NASA come in on budget again. Guaranteed. They'll have absolutely no incentive to propose realistic budgets and schedules, knowing NASA will always bail them out. If they do that, it's too bad that the astronomers can't make the Federal Government fund all the large ground-based telescopes or other astronomy projects that were cancelled in order to get the money for the Webb. In any event, it would be a huge waste of taxpayer money to cancel it now. Instead, things have to be nipped in the bud. Earlier oversight, to keep Webb within budget, would also have been an idea. However, much of the increase in the cost of Webb came from adding useful features to make up for other lost projects - not due to waste, due to money being spent so that value is not received. So if an expansion in the telescope's scope was not disallowed at the time, it seems unreasonable to use it as an excuse to cancel it now. Also, to think of cancelling it would mean that you fail to see the James Webb telescope as _urgently needed_, and as likely to provide _huge benefits_ after it becomes operational. What I'm concerned about is that it's such an ambitious project, it could be launched and somehow fail to work when it reaches its station. Spending extra money to protect against any initially unanticipated risks, instead of engaging in false economy, is what makes more sense to me. But then I think there ought to be as many Hubbles up there as there are KH-11s. According to Wikipedia, there were fourteen of them launched. At any rate, the Kodak mirror in the Smithsonian should instead have been put in orbit on a second Hubble. And there should be a second Webb ready to go, after the first one succeeds - or, if it fails, to be modified to avoid the cause of its failure, and then go. In general, automated space probes should be done that way, since the actual marginal costs of fabrication and launch are so small compared to the design costs, it makes sense to amortize the design costs to obtain greater reliability and more return of data. If there were a third Voyager, it could have visited Pluto while it still had an atmosphere. And these costs are chickenfeed compared to the ISS white elephant manned space program. John Savard |
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
On Sep 14, 8:52*pm, Brian Thorn wrote:
On Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:59:44 -0700 (PDT), Mike DiCenso wrote: I think once all the difficult stuff is done, you'll see a big improvement in how fast things come together for the spacecraft. Well, anything would be a big improvement over their past performance (or lack thereof.) Now is NOT the time to cancel. Sure, let's reward incompetence. Again. "You're 800% over budget and five years behind schedule? No problem, here's another check courtesy the US taxpayer. Like the check style? It's the same one we used for International Space Station and the Curiosity rover. Nice, eh?" This HAS to stop. Make an example out of Webb or we'll never see another Big Ticket program from NASA come in on budget again. Guaranteed. They'll have absolutely no incentive to propose realistic budgets and schedules, knowing NASA will always bail them out. Too late, Brian. Way too late. This should have been cancelled years ago, or delayed out into an R&D program for a big space telescope. But now that we're this far with the damn thing, I want to see it finished, just like Hubble survived through it's tumultuous development years and delays. In the end, it was worth all the money spent and the heartaches. -Mike |
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NASA'S Webb Telescope Completes Mirror Coating Milestone
On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:09:41 -0700 (PDT), Mike DiCenso
wrote: This HAS to stop. Make an example out of Webb or we'll never see another Big Ticket program from NASA come in on budget again. Guaranteed. They'll have absolutely no incentive to propose realistic budgets and schedules, knowing NASA will always bail them out. Too late, Brian. Way too late. Nonsense. It is not to late to save spending another $3.6 billion on the damned thing. $3.6 billion is a couple of Cassinis or Hubbles. Or a dozen Keplers. It was only supposed to cost $1 billion when it got the go ahead, remember and is now up to $6 billion, rising to $8 by the time the thing finally gets into orbit. Good money after bad here applies, I think. But now that we're this far with the damn thing, I want to see it finished The you write them a check. I don't want any more of my taxes going to these incompetent or worse, deliberately lying managers. Kick these guys to the curb, lick our wounds, and move on. Brian |
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