Yeah.
Mauna Kea is about one million years old on an planet that is
a little under 5 billion years old.
So I guess their Gods are pretty young.
Kamehameha schools don't teach white mans math
very well.
Don't get me wrong being on Mauna Kea is impressive
at the summit.

TMT telescope is just a facility and a 30 meter mirror.
What makes it work is the instruments that
gather Photons. You don't hear much about the
instrument they are developing.

The James Webb space telescope, if they ever
get it working,  and up there in orbit will way outclass
the Hubble in space, the TMT, or any other telescope on Earth.
Personally once we get the space ones working we really
don't need the land based ones as much.

Another reason SpaceX is important.  Orbiting telescopes are expensive and difficult to repair, maintain and upgrade.  The quicker we solve those problems, the less we need to build ground-based observatories.

The Hubble was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990.  Do the math, man!  That's a really long time as technology goes.  How many on here have the same cell phone, PC, TV and music player they were using in the early 90s?

30 years worth of technological advances.  Think about it.  A few upgrades have been installed to keep it useful, but is that the best we can muster?  Hardly!

There have been 5 servicing missions on the Hubble.  The last HST service mission was 2009, just before the Shuttle program was halted.  How many people would trust anything electronic in their homes to operate normally for 10 years?  Now imagine that appliance orbiting the Earth at 4,298.1 miles above the surface at 4.72 miles per SECOND!   

Anyone with even rudimentary critical thinking skills should be able to see how bad Elon’s ideas are. But that’s the point of blind faith. It shuts down the rational part of the brain. Grov brings up a great point. How many more broken promises do we need to awaken our skepticism? It’s a survival skill that protects us from scoundrels, megalomaniacs, and the dangerously delusional.


https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11447265/elon-musk-starlink-satellites-night-sky-block-orbit-how-many/

Anyone with even rudimentary critical thinking skills should be able to see how bad Elon’s ideas are. But that’s the point of blind faith. It shuts down the rational part of the brain. Grov brings up a great point. How many more broken promises do we need to awaken our skepticism? It’s a survival skill that protects us from scoundrels, megalomaniacs, and the dangerously delusional.


https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11447265/elon-musk-starlink-satellites-night-sky-block-orbit-how-many/

My rudimentary logic tells me that the Internet has become a critical part of our lives: employment, finances, medical information, national security, general information, weather and earthquake alerts, -- you name it, and people are becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet for almost every part of our lives.

Having affordable, fast Internet access for everyone is not a bad thing. 

As the problems are identified (shiny satellites interfering with ground-based observatories), they can be addressed (new non-reflective coating to eliminate the shininess).

Having a knee-jerk reaction to space satellites based on a SUN article?  How punny!   

My rudimentary logic tells me that the Internet has become a critical part of our lives: employment, finances, medical information, national security, general information, weather and earthquake alerts, -- you name it, and people are becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet for almost every part of our lives.

Having affordable, fast Internet access for everyone is not a bad thing. 

As the problems are identified (shiny satellites interfering with ground-based observatories), they can be addressed (new non-reflective coating to eliminate the shininess).

Having a knee-jerk reaction to space satellites based on a SUN article?  How punny!   

Most big money astronomy is not done in Visible light.
so reflectors are a just a "shut the dumb fvcks up"
That is a very small part of the spectrum of energy
we seek to observe, most I know of is in IR and Lower
wavelengths.
Visible light only tells you what it looks like, not what it
is made of.
Although I made my living for a time in the Astronomy
industry in Hawaii, I think it is a waste as it does not improve
the human condition( other than jobs and vocations)

The Internet does improve peoples lives.
That is more important than the Black hole in the center
of our Galaxy, or that the Galaxy Andromeda
is going to collide with ours in 5 billion years or so.
Our sun isn't going to last that long.
So much for "renewable: energy.

World wide inexpensive Internet.
I'm all for it!

Full disclosure;
My internet is satellite now.
$85 per month.
No land lines,  all off a bird 22,000 miles away.

Your lord and savior Elon Christ is busy filling the skies with hazardous space debris that will completely destroy our ability use orbit at any level for any purpose. It’s called the Kessler effect, and it was a serious concern before the government sponsored him to ratchet it into high gear.

So the guy who is supposed to make your space fantasies all come true is actually making space flight impossible, stranding us all on the planet with a garbage filled sky occasionally raining remnants of stupidity and hubris down on us for the next few thousand years.

Your lord and savior Elon Christ is busy filling the skies with hazardous space debris that will completely destroy our ability use orbit at any level for any purpose. It’s called the Kessler effect, and it was a serious concern before the government sponsored him to ratchet it into high gear.

So the guy who is supposed to make your space fantasies all come true is actually making space flight impossible, stranding us all on the planet with a garbage filled sky occasionally raining remnants of stupidity and hubris down on us for the next few thousand years.

You should use "Quote" more.
Unlike most stuff put up there these "baby" satellites are designed to burn-up when they fail.
There is a lot of trash in orbit and that is a big problem.
Some smart guy will come up with a way to
deal with things doing 4 miles per second, that are trash.
Capitalism always works.

You should use "Quote" more.
Unlike most stuff put up there these "baby" satellites are designed to burn-up when they fail.
There is a lot of trash in orbit and that is a big problem.
Some smart guy will come up with a way to
deal with things doing 4 miles per second, that are trash.
Capitalism always works.

True.  If the value of the so-called debris (gold, titanium and platinum are used in many components) were to be worth the cost involved in recovering it, the problem would eventually fix itself as "Space Recyclers" develop new ways to harvest said junk.

Yet another purpose for the SpaceX program.  Imagine a mission to connect 100 obsolete satellites together and guide them back to Earth through reentry, assuming the junk was built to survive it.  Also, imagine a drone ship that grabs dead satellites and places them on a proper trajectory to be incinerated long before their obit is expected to decay.  Sort of a SpaceX version of a Roomba.     New materials that can be deployed safely intact could then be easily burned up on reentry, making them safer by avoiding collisions on the ground. 

For every problem people imagine, there are possible solutions just waiting to be imagined as well.  We won't ever know if we don't try.

BTW, him taunting me by using "Your lord and savior, Elon Musk" just makes hvybarrels sound that much more ignorant.  If that's his only jab, he should quit now.  I got worse from my kids when they were in elementary school!   

I'll be in Florida in the middle of September for the Gun Rights Policy Conference.  I'm hoping I can watch a spacex flight take off and visit some space museums there.  In July I'll be in Arizona and I'm planning to take a tour of the Sedona observatory where Pluto was discovered.  I always loved astronomy.  Might even see Inspector in the area.

I'll be in Florida in the middle of September for the Gun Rights Policy Conference.  I'm hoping I can watch a spacex flight take off and visit some space museums there.  In July I'll be in Arizona and I'm planning to take a tour of the Sedona observatory where Pluto was discovered.  I always loved astronomy.  Might even see Inspector in the area.

The Cape is pretty awesome.
The shuttle and Falcon launch pads
had warning signs about death from the sound
levels, yet it is a National wildlife and bird sanctuary.
Go figure

I would try to see the
Binocular Telescope
since you are in the area.
Very impressive.
Since you like Astronomy.
I worked at the Kecks.
The Binocular was
a very interesting
Telescope.

I'll be in Florida in the middle of September for the Gun Rights Policy Conference.  I'm hoping I can watch a spacex flight take off and visit some space museums there.  In July I'll be in Arizona and I'm planning to take a tour of the Sedona observatory where Pluto was discovered.  I always loved astronomy.  Might even see Inspector in the area.

Let me know if you are going to be nearby. 

warning signs about death from the sound
levels, yet it is a National wildlife and bird sanctuary.
Go figure

My F-4 squadron deployed to Fallon Nev for training 1966.   A few of us got some bows and arrows from the special services.  Went out to hunt jackrabbits around the runways.   Rabbits were mostly deaf from all the jet takeoffs so we thought we could get close.   They could not hear squat, but the eyesight saved them from our ineptness.

My F-4 squadron deployed to Fallon Nev for training 1966.   A few of us got some bows and arrows from the special services.  Went out to hunt jackrabbits around the runways.   Rabbits were mostly deaf from all the jet takeoffs so we thought we could get close.   They could not hear squat, but the eyesight saved them from our ineptness.

Those rabbits were deaf ...

... but not dumb!