November 22, 2023 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
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Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Bob, You were appalled during the JWST’s development. Has your opinion changed based on the results? Is it worth the cost over runs and delays? PS – Happy Turkey Day
Gobble Gobble
Col Beausabre: Webb is doing exactly what I expected, and that is good. It however was not worth the money for several reasons:
1. The cost overruns shut down almost all other space astronomy projects at NASA for almost two decades. It would have been better to keep launching many other telescopes than one big one. We likely would have learned more for the dollars spent.
2. The project should not have cost as much as it did. Much of that cost overrun was because NASA really doesn’t care about cost. It knows the goal of Congress is to spend money in local districts. NASA is always glad to oblige. An honest effort to build this telescope would have cost about half and have been completed sooner.
Bob, Thank you.
John had noted that Starship leapt off the pad and wondered whether it would have been slower had there been a payload aboard.
The quick answer is: not really.
The longer answer is that it took about as long as a couple of us had calculated before the April launch. A 150 ton payload is only about 3% of the lift off weight, so it would have taken only about three percent more time with a payload (or 3% less without, if they had a test mass on this launch).
Although there are many reasons to launch with a test mass, such as determining the performance of proposed mounting hardware, there are also reasons to launch early development ships without a mass, such as reducing complications and giving a better chance to achieve orbital speed. It is not clear which way SpaceX chose to go on this flight.
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As for Webb, I think it would have been better still had NASA been a better manager and had kept the budget and schedule under control so that we could have had the telescopes and science that were lost to Webb’s voracious ways as well as the science from Webb. This is what was intended when they budgeted Webb, and NASA should have managed to provide both. Now the Roman Telescope is pulling another Webb, and we may lose the opportunities for even more small telescopes and even more science due to Roman’s insatiable appetite.