Oh that makes so much more sense now. Thank you!

>Nor do I know what SGL is, or why you'd want to floor it to get there.

Solar Gravitational Lens. We can use the sun's gravity to focus light like a telescope. However the sun doesn't bend light much so the focal point is something around 500 AU out. For reference, the Voyager probes are only around 150 AU out.

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Man, I just looked at one of the project abstracts and felt like I came in fifteen minutes late to a science fiction disaster film. Do what now?

>To address the urgent need for advanced propulsion solutions, we propose
the development of a nuclear fission fragment rocket engine (FFRE) that
is exponentially more propellent efficient than rocket engines
currently used to power today's space vehicles and could achieve very
high specific impulse (>100,000 sec) at high power density
(>kW/kg). ... NIAC work will provide detailed mission analysis of fast transit to SGL
for direct imaging and high-resolution spectroscopy of a habitable
exoplanet at a distance of up to 100 light years. The FFRE propulsion
system could provide delta-V to reach the SGL in less than 15yrs and
provide the slowdown and maneuvering capability at SGL.

A hundred thousand second Isp, you say? Let me just plug that into Kerbal Engineer Redux.

And sorry, I don't know what the urgent need is. Nor do I know what SGL is, or why you'd want to floor it to get there.

The big telescopes have long waiting lists of scientists that want to use them for their research. After they gathered the Data, they spend months interpreting the Data to publish it. If that Data is available to anyone immediatly (live stream), others would try to publish it under their own names and would claim the fame of the initial scientists who had all the work. After all, they dont point it randomly at the sky, but have a scientific scope which they had to propose before getting time on the telescope. It just would'nt be fair to those people, that had all the work, just for others to claim the first publication afterwards. And yes, there are groups that do this, and thats how the academic world works. First publisher gets all the fame and recognition.

In case of special Events though, the idea is pretts cool.

You can technically rent telescope time at some observatories.

I don't see why this couldn't be done though. With EAA and like stacking being a thing now people should be able to live stream their camera feeds if they really want to.

I suppose I could try it one night.

I had never even thought of this. What a great idea.

Palos verdes / palos verdes estates. Pacific palisades way up in the hills. Top of Mandeville or canyons in Brentwood. Spots off Mulholland.. I’d say go towards the Santa Monica mountains and hills. Also Malibu state creek park (or something?), used to rock climb there a while back…

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In Palos Verdes there's a lighthouse that has a parking lot . The hills block all of the light pollution from Los Angeles

On the upside, it also provides natural protection against alien invasion. You gotta look at the glass as half full.

You'd hope they do but many are not implementable in a quick manner or to the scale we have achieved with space based services. The question was about if they all failed at once, which is why we are quite concerned about coronal mass ejection and other space weather that could knock out our space systems all at once.

There are ground based PNT/augmentation seeking to lessen reliance on GNSS/space based PNT.

The US considers some of these capabilities as critical infrastructure with limited alternatives. Some are unique like the ISS and Hubble.

Remarkably GNSS is one of the largest components of the space industry. Near everything has gps or timing requirements now. https://brycetech.com/reports/report-documents/Bryce_2019_Global_Space_Economy.png

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Look it up and you'll find that coal is more polluting than nuclear by a large percentage.

Ha. The elevator mount includes a layup maneuver. Catch the hook at Angels 20?

So...blow even more money on the military? I thought we were already doing that?

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." — Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

Surely many of these systems have a terrestrial backup.

These are Android apps i can recommend. Maybe they are available for iOS too:

Besides NASA: Try European Space Agency (ESA)

There's "European Space Agency (ESA)TV" News app about ESA

There are some apps that give information about specific Satellites and their data:

ESA Cryosat

ESA Aeolus

Copernicus Sentinel

ESA Heritage Missions

For Rocket launches:

Next Spaceflight

Space Launch Now

For Stargazing and Satelitte-Tracking:

Heavens Above

Sky Map

ISS on Live

Satellite Tracker

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There wasn't exactly a fixed schedule for Apollo missions, they could happen during any time of the year (within the launch windows during each lunar period, of course), there's nothing that would have prevented a launch from happening during that 4 month period other than just luck. The operational cadence of the program resulted in no missions happening at that time, but they could have.

It isn't that far from north star now, so a good chunk of northern emispher is covered.

It sucks for who's from Southern emispher but at least not as elusive as those damn solar eclipses.

Anyway magnitude is around 5 so unless you have the tools and a nice dark place, won't see shit regardless.

It's a bummer but so it's life.

It's only a second best, of course, but there is a free webcast featuring our friend, the comet.