Arecibo radio telescope is decommissioned and will be torn down (Page 2/8)
sourmash NOV 22, 10:31 AM
Space X just had a delivery of astronauts to the Space Station too didn't they?
williegoat NOV 22, 10:58 AM

quote
Originally posted by Wichita:

China has one that is larger they built a few years ago.



A little sesame oil, some garlic and ginger, some peppers and bean sprouts....you've got the world's largest wok.
sourmash NOV 22, 11:47 AM
WOOF-WOOF!

[This message has been edited by sourmash (edited 11-22-2020).]

theogre NOV 22, 03:47 PM

quote
Originally posted by Wichita:
China presses on though.
China has one that is larger they built a few years ago.

China is mainly a PR stunt and maybe won't last long unless CCP will support it every year. That's ignoring any other problems hidden by CCP.

Why Arecibo has been looking for Big Pockets to take over cost to operate and maintenance from NAIC for 20+ years. NAIC has lost Fed and other Money for decades and now very little to no maintenance at Arecibo and some other places under NAIC control.

Chinese unit is bigger but Cannot do same job as doesn't use Radar and not likely to ever be upgraded for this. Very few single dish or arrays has Radar but far weaker then Arecibo. Manley touch on this near end of video is why link above.
82-T/A [At Work] NOV 24, 10:53 AM

quote
Originally posted by maryjane:

I wouldn't say the US is doing 'nothing'.

SpaceX will try to repeat that performance later today from the Florida coast as it launches another batch of Starlink sats on a different flight proven 1st stage. Recovery is slated to be on a drone ship in the Atlantic.





No, Wichita is completely correct. Nerds, geeks, and dweebs run the show right now. These are the weirdoes who in high school used to play Magic the Gathering under the stairs in between classes. These are the kids who are socially awkward, lazy, entitled, and brainwashed. These are the people who are basically running the country by being the "squeeky" wheel. Politicians, only too eager to get and keep power, will cater to them. We even elected one of these community organizers in 2008. The Obama administration destroyed NASA... slashing funding and re-adjusting resources to things like Muslim Outreach and Climate Research.

Space-X is an anomaly that was only able to succeed because Government had continued to fail so badly. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc... are symptoms of Government fraud, waste, and abuse... and what happens to a company when it gets into bed with Government. Space-X is only able to be successful as it is right now because it's privately owned.

I will be SHOCKED... shocked if Biden puts any effort whatsoever into NASA... or advocate for it.

maryjane NOV 24, 11:09 AM
He didn't say "NASA" doesn't do anything. He said "Now 'we don't do anything" which I assume he meant the nation as a whole since he mentioned nuclear power plants, SR71, and whatever 'etc' entails. Both nuclear power (Westinghouse) and the Blackbird (Lockheed) were products of US private enterprise.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 11-26-2020).]

rinselberg NOV 25, 04:43 AM
I'm going to defer.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 11-25-2020).]

rinselberg NOV 25, 10:44 AM
"You're gonna need a bigger hohlraum."

Fans of "big" (literally) U.S.-based science facilities should not overlook the National Ignition Facility or NIF at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, an easy morning's drive inland (easy, aside from traffic) from San Francisco Bay.

"Burning Plasma is even better than Burning Man."

There's a new update online.

"Laser fusion reactor approaches ‘burning plasma’ milestone"
Daniel Clery for ScienceMag(.org); November 23, 2020.
https://www.sciencemag.org/...ing-plasma-milestone

Here's how it starts:

quote
In October 2010, in a building the size of three U.S. football fields, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory powered up 192 laser beams, focused their energy into a pulse with the punch of a speeding truck, and fired it at a pellet of nuclear fuel the size of a peppercorn. So began a campaign by the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to achieve the goal it is named for: igniting a fusion reaction that produces more energy than the laser puts in.

A decade and nearly 3000 shots later, NIF is still generating more fizz than bang, hampered by the complex, poorly understood behavior of the laser targets when they vaporize and implode. But with new target designs and laser pulse shapes, along with better tools to monitor the miniature explosions, NIF researchers believe they are close to an important intermediate milestone known as “burning plasma”: a fusion burn sustained by the heat of the reaction itself rather than the input of laser energy.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 11-25-2020).]

Patrick NOV 25, 11:33 PM

quote
Originally posted by Wichita:

Now, we don't do anything. All that is frowned upon because of the anti-science left.



Yeah man, we need the religious-right to get science back on track! What a freakin' joke!
Wichita NOV 26, 05:24 AM

quote
Originally posted by Patrick:

Yeah man, we need the religious-right to get science back on track! What a freakin' joke!



Religious Right and the Looney Left are both anti-science. One of the same! More alike than different. Pretty much the same animal.