Webb Telescope Rescheduled To Launch Christmas Morning

Heard an interesting thing last night on this telescope from someone very close to those that know….

This project was built on a spec for 5 years of operation. But they built so much margin and redundancy into it (since you just can’t go and fix it or readjust it) and the rocket delivering it to its orbit did such a great job that they think they have about 20 years of fuel to keep it in its orbit.

So if nothing else fails along the way, and it doesn’t get smashed by something in space it could study the cosmos for 4x longer than planned.
 
MarkOU said:
Unfortunately that has already happened about a month ago but they said it's gonna be okay.

www.forbes.com

The Webb Telescope Has Been Hit By Something. Here’s What It Means For Science

Just days before it’s due to see “first light” the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been hit by a micrometeoroid, damaging one of the 18 segments in its 6.5-meter mirror.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
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Yeah. It’s going to take more of those. I don’t think it can do two decades. But, then there are Voyager probes outside the solar system and rovers in Mars that have stayed alive out there much longer then planned for.
 
Cool. Great photos. What does this necessarily do for us now or even in the near future? And I mean near future as in 50 years. Because I am sure besides the extremely high amount of time, this cost a ton of money. And for what? A picture of a few colorful dots?

Yeah I get the shocking discovery fact that each one little dot is it's own galaxy, but ok....Cool. What now? We can't even travel to all of the planets in our own galaxy, so are we going to now begin to try and make our way to one of those dots? That'll take a 800 years.

I mean again, cool photo, such an enormous universe it's literally impossible to comprehend all that is going on. But I don't need billions of dollars used on this. I'd rather it be invested in more practical current needs, like curing cancer.
 
OregonDucks said:
Cool. Great photos. What does this necessarily do for us now or even in the near future? And I mean near future as in 50 years. Because I am sure besides the extremely high amount of time, this cost a ton of money. And for what? A picture of a few colorful dots?

Yeah I get the shocking discovery fact that each one little dot is it's own galaxy, but ok....Cool. What now? We can't even travel to all of the planets in our own galaxy, so are we going to now begin to try and make our way to one of those dots? That'll take a 800 years.

I mean again, cool photo, such an enormous universe it's literally impossible to comprehend all that is going on. But I don't need billions of dollars used on this. I'd rather it be invested in more practical current needs, like curing cancer.
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You don’t comprehend it, you don’t need it, noted. However, your ignorance doesn’t make it an unworthy endeavor. Just enjoy the pretty colors while astrophysicists study the origins of the Universe for you.
 
Orlando_Eagles said:
Yeah. It’s going to take more of those. I don’t think it can do two decades. But, then there are Voyager probes outside the solar system and rovers in Mars that have stayed alive out there much longer then planned for.
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It’s completely insane that Voyager is still sending data to this day.
 
TheDayMan said:
You don’t comprehend it, you don’t need it, noted. However, your ignorance doesn’t make it an unworthy endeavor. Just enjoy the pretty colors while astrophysicists study the origins of the Universe for you.
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In the end, in our lifetime, that is all it is going to be for us. So much money for such little entertainment.
 
OregonDucks said:
Cool. Great photos. What does this necessarily do for us now or even in the near future? And I mean near future as in 50 years. Because I am sure besides the extremely high amount of time, this cost a ton of money. And for what? A picture of a few colorful dots?

Yeah I get the shocking discovery fact that each one little dot is it's own galaxy, but ok....Cool. What now? We can't even travel to all of the planets in our own galaxy, so are we going to now begin to try and make our way to one of those dots? That'll take a 800 years.

I mean again, cool photo, such an enormous universe it's literally impossible to comprehend all that is going on. But I don't need billions of dollars used on this. I'd rather it be invested in more practical current needs, like curing cancer.
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I mean….if someone shows me the proof that the money for this project was either going to this or curing cancer than I don’t need this telescope. But things rarely work that way.

This isn’t a scouting mission like you think. It’s scouting the origins of the universe, not missions to come. For that there would need to be (ahem) astronomical leaps in propulsion technology.

But don’t worry….that propulsion technology is either already taking, or will take MASSIVE amounts of cancer curing funds.
 
OregonDucks said:
In the end, in our lifetime, that is all it is going to be for us. So much money for such little entertainment.
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Finding this a weird take from a diehard college football fan. Why do universities put so much funding and resources into athletics when they could be giving everything they have to their medical research programs?

The obvious answer is because that’s not how anything works. Science, research, entertainment… it’s not a zero sum game.
 
TheDayMan said:
It’s completely insane that Voyager is still sending data to this day.
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So far beyond spec. Some worried if these could even make it through the asteroid belt or as far as Neptune without something going wrong. Might be why they went two.
 
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