Psst! Hey buddy! Yeah, you … hey … you wanna sattelite? A satellite, you know … orbits around the planet, does stuff … look, do you wanna talk or do you want a piece of the sky? You need to know more … aaaagh, okay, these guys can explain …
In an uncharacteristically common-sense move, NASA has decided to explore ways of continuing the science payoff of missions that it would otherwise have to scrap due to budget constraints. Currently in the cross hairs is GALEX, an ultraviolet space telescope launched in 2003. The telescope still mostly works, and it’s 80% finished with its ultraviolet sky survey, but a recent review placed GALEX eighth on a list of eleven currently operating missions, and this low placement means that NASA can’t continue to prioritize funding to allow the telescope to finish its work.
It’s really a shame to waste an instrument like this after all the hard work (i.e. building the thing and getting it into orbit) has been done already, and NASA is considering the unprecedented move of transferring GALEX and its associated ground equipment to the California Institute of Technology (for free) so that the telescope can continue to collect data. Caltech is trying to figure out if they’ll be able to accept a sweet present like this, but if they can’t manage it, NASA says that Plan B is to “decommission” the satellite, which usually means commanding suicide by orbital death-plunge.
Hopefully, Caltech will be able to take over the mission and go on to use GALEX to spot some space aliens or something, proving to NASA that it should continue this policy of letting educational institutions take over the financial burden of keeping valuable space hardware operating. But if Caltech can’t make it happen, we here at DVICE would encourage NASA to move blowing GALEX up to Plan C, and replace Plan B with transferring the satellite and associated equipment to one Evan Ackerman, amateur astronomer extraordinaire, who pinky swears that he will use it for good and not evil.
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… soooo … you’re saying you know a super villain who wants to rain down destruction on a random city? We may be able to do some business …
[Source: DVICE]