‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

A 12-year sequence of telescope images of a star and four planets orbiting

402 points · 82 comments · mariuz

  1. ortusdux · · focus · HN ↗
    I'm excited for the leap in this tech that the Nancy Grace Roman telescope's new chronograph promises.

    <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jpl.nasa.gov&#x2F;missions&#x2F;the-roman-coronagraph-instrument&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jpl.nasa.gov&#x2F;missions&#x2F;the-roman-coronagraph-inst...

    The Roman Coronagraph is designed to detect planets 100 million times fainter than their stars, which is 100 to 1,000 times better than existing space-based coronagraphs. The Roman Coronagraph will be capable of directly imaging reflected starlight from a planet akin to Jupiter in size, temperature, and distance from its parent star.

    1. izend · · focus · HN ↗
      I am as well and hopefully Starship allows even larger telescopes!
      1. lukeify · · focus · HN ↗
        Starship can do it.

        As long as the telescope can fit through the Starlink Pez dispenser.

        1. walrus01 · · focus · HN ↗
          If this remains a long term design limitation it&#x27;ll be interesting to see if people design satellite hardware that consists of multiple individual rectangular slab sized things (generally same size&#x2F;shape per piece as starlink v3 test satellites which have unfolding PV&#x2F;antenna), that can latch together once dispensed, and further unfold.

          Such an architecture might not be an impossible design consideration if the goal is to have something big like the sun-shade&#x2F;cold side of the Webb telescope.

          1. dylan604 · · focus · HN ↗
            I can&#x27;t imagine that there will not be other versions. The Pez dispenser is just solving the problem at hand. Eventually, I wouldn&#x27;t be surprised to see cargo bay doors similar to the shuttle&#x27;s.
            1. walrus01 · · focus · HN ↗
              That seems likely. Best guess is the relatively small slot sized door is a cautious design while they&#x27;re working out issues with re-entry heating and stresses and sacrificing ships into the ocean. Once they&#x27;re very confident they have the configuration for the &#x27;hot&#x27; side of the starship working well on re-entry (and probably after they&#x27;ve returned and caught a few), it could be expanded in size.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.