Vorticity

@Vorticity@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨White House Orders NASA to Destroy Important Satellite that Collects Climate Data⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Being that they’re in low earth orbit, they do require some human intervention for station keeping. They also need to monitor the orbits and move the satellite at times to avoid collisions with debris. Lastly, they need to monitor for anomalies so that, if something does go wrong, they can safely dispose of the satellite before the satellite itself becomes another piece of debris.

  That, plus data collection and dissipation are the reason the satellites cost $15M/year to operate. The administration wants OCO2 deorbited. I’m not sure what they want done with OCO3 since it is attached to the ISS.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨White House Orders NASA to Destroy Important Satellite that Collects Climate Data⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  We spent around $1B to develop and launch OCO 1 (failed launch), 2, and 3 combined. Continued operations of OCO 2 and 3 cost about $15M per year in total. Destroying them would be like destroying a skyscraper that is a few years old and costs $15M in annual maintenance. That would be a very cheap building to maintain I’m guessing.

  Once on orbit, satellite are extremely cheap and it is our best interests to keep them alive as long as possible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A 32-bit RISC-V processor made using molybdenum disulfide instead of silicon⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It seems like the prototype stage, or even before, is a good time to ask whether the materials are plentiful enough for this to be a major discovery or just a curiosity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google offering ‘voluntary exit’ for employees working on Pixel, Android⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The difference here is that leaving would come with a severance package. Offering the same kind of severance package that a company would normally give during layoffs, but allowing people to selectively take it seems like a very reasonable way to handle reducing payroll.

  I imagine that, if not enough people take the offer, they might then have layoffs so this seems like a pretty humane and nice way to handle a tough situation.