• Technology

    The World's Biggest Telescope

    By Posted on 1.22.2008 1 Comments

    How to Capture the Cosmos

    1.31.2008 at 09:07pm - Comment by Ryuu

    Such a thing might be a good use for those hundreds of obsolete football & baseball stadiums we've got cluttering up the country :D But I question the need to make each segment of the primary mirror so large that gravity is distorting them that severely--the whole point of making the primary into hexagonal segments is that it's impossible to create such a huge primary as a single reflective mirror. So WHY NOT, instead, make the segments SMALLER (just more of them) so that they DON'T warp so badly??? 984 hexagons of 4.8' dia is 6135.6 sq.ft. Instead, making the mirror from 1' dia segments would require 2362 segments to get the same collecting area, but each mirror would have greater structual integrity and warp less.

  • Technology

    Spirit Might Not Make it Through The Winter

    By Posted on 1.22.2008 2 Comments

    Two weeks. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has until Christmas to make it to a nice, sunny slope of a nearby plateau, where it will point its solar panels towards the Sun and park for the winter. Unfortunately, Spirit can't just drive. A recent dust storm on the Red Planet drained much of the rover's energy, so at this point it needs a day of rest for every day of travel. Engineers knew this energy problem would come eventually. Solar panels need to be clean and free of debris to soak up sunlight. But the Red Planet hasn't been cooperating. Those massive dust storms deposit a fine layer of dirt on the panels, vastly reducing their energy-generating capacity. Some stiff winds blew much of the dust off Opportunity's panels, but Spirit hasn't been so lucky. Spirit is down to 42 percent capacity. Still, though, it's amazing that they're even roving at all at this point. They were supposed to run out of juice several years ago.—Gregory Mone Via FoxNews

    1.31.2008 at 08:45pm - Comment by Ryuu

    Spirit & Oportunity have really been such hardy troopers--they've done a fantastic job inspite of cost-cutting measures used in their construction! But--REALLY--a cheap set or two of window wipers would've prevented this problem ;)



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