November 22, 2023 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
___________
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.