2,011 karma · joined June 23, 2009
"What really makes Roman stand out is that it is designed for wide-field imaging. The cameras on telescopes can often only detect objects in a very small patch of sky. If we use the size that the full moon appears in the sky as our guide, Hubble’s field of view is often smaller than that —meaning each picture it takes is of a patch of sky smaller than the full moon. Webb’s instruments often are even smaller than Hubble’s. Each picture taken by Roman, however, will be larger than the full moon, allowing it to survey more of the sky much faster than Hubble or Webb."
https://science.psu.edu/news/ask-expert-will-roman-help-reve...
A more convincing article would focus on purported prior art patents, and let the reader judge if really anticipated frequency hopping.
This fellow also stays with friends.
Once solar is cheap (like now, as it already is), you can put in 3x what is needed on a sunny day, and power everything on cloudy days. Solar runs on cloudy days. Night obviously requires a different solution. Start by installing solar over all parking lots.
To think that you won't be able to run a 100% solar/wind grid is a bet against human ingenuity. If generation in excess of peak demand was installed of solar/wind, there are many promising approaches to deal with generation shortfalls. Batteries, load shifting, an electric vehicle fleet that charges during the day and powers the grid at night if the owner opts in, precooling a home with AC during the day to a low set point so AC isn't needed at night, H2 storage in salt caverns, pumped hydro, aluminum smelters that operate during excess power periods, the possibilities are infinite.
It won't be hard. Don't bet against human ingenuity.
And even though full reusability is much easier with two stages, and has not been achieved yet.
So legacy launch vehicles with the exception of Shuttle lift of leisurely.
At liftoff, each SRB produces 2.65 million pounds thrust [1]. Using Wikipedia numbers instead (2.8 million pounds for SRB thrust at liftoff [2]) gives a liftoff thrust to weight ratio of 1.33. The 3xSME produce 0.4 million pounds thrust at liftoff. The SRB thrust did increase as the burn progressed, then ramped down for max Q.
People are accustomed to SpaceX rockets rapid acceleration, since they conduct most launches these days, but historic rockets (and New Glenn) accelerated more slowly off the pad.
[1] https://www.nasa.gov/reference/the-space-shuttle/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Solid_Rocket_Boo...
An impressive first flight by any measure!
Even modest fire hardening would help. If a wood-frame house burns, it is a danger to all nearby houses. Hardening reduces the chain reaction potential.
Shouldn't this be mandated, if a "natural disaster" destroys a home, to not replace it with a similarly vulnerable structure?