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Facemelters commented on Why I'm resigning from the National Science Foundation   time.com/7285045/resignin... · Posted by u/jbegley
Facemelters · 4 months ago
please refer to a chart of scientific progress that encompasses both those years and the post WWII expansion of the US science state
Facemelters commented on The disappearance of Gaia, ESA spacecraft will be turned off on 27 March 2025   cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/n... · Posted by u/croes
tgsovlerkhgsel · 5 months ago
I understood why they are shooting it into a graveyard orbit, but not why they're actively turning it off rather than trying to get whatever science they can out of it. (I'm sure that if I have a basic idea like this, the people at ESA also had it, but I haven't seen the reasoning explained anywhere.)

I think this part of the Wikipedia article answers it:

> In order to maintain the fine pointing to focus on stars many light years away, the only moving parts are actuators to align the mirrors and the valves to fire the thrusters. It has no reaction wheels or gyroscopes.

So without "fuel" (reaction mass/gas) for the cold gas thrusters, it likely couldn't hold a stable attitude, and a tumbling spacecraft is likely quite useless because you can't even properly communicate with it, let alone use instruments.

I wonder what considerations went into not attempting to use it as a low-value probe sending out telemetry using a low bandwidth omnidirectional antenna (which I would expect the spacecraft to have for recovery in case something goes wrong). Maybe we already have all the science that would be interesting from other probes, maybe management/budget decisions, maybe it wouldn't work, but it would be interesting to see the decision making.

Facemelters · 5 months ago
Costs money to support the mission
Facemelters commented on Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood   supernuclear.substack.com... · Posted by u/surprisetalk
Facemelters · 5 months ago
The whitest thing I've ever seen
Facemelters commented on What's happening inside the NIH and NSF   science.org/content/blog-... · Posted by u/rrock
jmcqk6 · 7 months ago
Wow so not a single white/chinese/indian male has been funded since 2013? For over a decade? That's an incredible claim. Literally.
Facemelters · 7 months ago
you know what they're talking about, don't play dumb
Facemelters commented on What's happening inside the NIH and NSF   science.org/content/blog-... · Posted by u/rrock
Facemelters · 7 months ago
The idea is to destroy every part of the American federal government so that techno fiefdoms can be ruled by oligarchs. It's pretty obvious. Not sure if we can stop it!

In this particular case, the goal is to privatize science entirely.

Facemelters commented on The U.S. needs a shipbuilding revolution   usni.org/magazines/procee... · Posted by u/iancmceachern
thtowbs · 7 months ago
Sanders would sell the country to China
Facemelters · 7 months ago
tell us more about how you know nothing of american politics
Facemelters commented on CDC data are disappearing   theatlantic.com/health/ar... · Posted by u/doener
JumpCrisscross · 7 months ago
> Trump just pardoned the violent attackers of Jan6

He let violent criminals out of jail. Unsurprisingly, they’re going on to commit crime. It’s wild how similarly the far left and right act when they’re given power; in an alternate universe, Chesa Boudin is pardoning them because abolish prisons or whatever.

Facemelters · 7 months ago
crime went up after they removed chesa, mr. fact check
Facemelters commented on 'Never seen anything like this' – NIH meetings and travel halted abruptly   nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/anigbrowl
Facemelters · 7 months ago
fun to just suicide the country for literally no reason

or rather, for the reason of speedrunning 1990s Russian oligarchic plundering of the state

Facemelters commented on Department of Government Efficiency   doge.gov/... · Posted by u/baq
Facemelters · 7 months ago
"The people voted for major reform"

They didn't vote for Elon to do it. They also were explicitly lied to by the Trump campaign -- they claimed they didn't know what Project 2025 was and that they had no relationship to it. The minute they won, guess what they said their plan is?

Lying fascists.

u/Facemelters

KarmaCake day161February 22, 2011
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