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[-] Edie@hexbear.net 52 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Declares new space race against China.

Proceeds to dismantle space agency.

wtf

Is space just gonna became another funnel for moving money to companies like the military.


β“˜ π˜›π˜©π˜ͺ𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘳 π˜ͺ𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘀𝘡𝘦π˜₯ 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘦π˜ͺ𝘯𝘨 𝘒 𝘀𝘒𝘡. π˜—π˜­π˜¦π˜’π˜΄π˜¦ 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘡 𝘒𝘯𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘱π˜ͺ𝘀π˜ͺ𝘰𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘒𝘷π˜ͺ𝘰𝘳.

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 27 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Is space just gonna became another funnel for moving money to companies like the military.

astronaut-1

It's obviously worse now, but the private contractor grift has been around for a long time.

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 43 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Lmao this shit takes months of construction to custom build and tweak to get right and they're just gonna toss the entire room out like you can just order one on the internet later

[-] BGDelirium@hexbear.net 23 points 2 months ago

What is this? Looks like a instadeath spiked room you fall into in a Mega Man level

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Anechoic chambers are all like this, they're utterly soundproof rooms. They're also supposedly only something humans can stay inside for short time periods because it gets uncomfortable when you start to realise you can hear the blood travelling through your own veins because of how silent it is.

This one is set up for whatever the job of this antenna is. I don't know enough about the antenna to comment on it.

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 20 points 2 months ago

I think this room is the same, but for RF rather than sound. It would be used to test various RF equipment without (as much) interference or reflections.

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

Yeah that makes sense and also makes it more unique than sounds alone.

[-] Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 2 months ago

Can confirm. I've been in a room exactly like that, where they had an antenna mounted on one wall like the above picture, an RF reflector mounted on the opposite wall, and RF dampening cones on every surface, so that they could measure the frequency curve at a distance twice that of the size of the room (the curve changes with distance)

[-] altphoto@lemmy.today 10 points 2 months ago

Yes exactly. This is a room to test for signals, wanted or unwanted coming out of the devices to be tested. I know nothing about it so don't spy on me please lol.

[-] Bolshechick@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago

They're also supposedly only something humans can stay inside for short time periods because it gets uncomfortable

It's true! I've been in one and it was uncanny as hell. I've also been in an echoic chamber where the tiniest little footstep or w/e echoes and echoes and echoes

[-] hotcouchguy@hexbear.net 14 points 2 months ago

it gets uncomfortable when you start to realise you can hear the blood travelling through your own veins because of how silent it is.

Wouldn't be me, I'm built different, I got tinnitus

[-] jack@hexbear.net 10 points 2 months ago

I've been in one and it is weird as hell

[-] Edie@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Looks similar to foam sound padding. Reducing waves (whether that be sound or something else) Presumably for creating a room without interference for the antenna.


β“˜ π˜›π˜©π˜ͺ𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘳 π˜ͺ𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘀𝘡𝘦π˜₯ 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘦π˜ͺ𝘯𝘨 𝘒 𝘀𝘒𝘡. π˜—π˜­π˜¦π˜’π˜΄π˜¦ 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘡 𝘒𝘯𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘱π˜ͺ𝘀π˜ͺ𝘰𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘒𝘷π˜ͺ𝘰𝘳.

[-] xorollo@leminal.space 9 points 2 months ago

Pspspspspsps

[-] sodium_nitride@hexbear.net 9 points 2 months ago

It simulates the conditions the antenna will find in space, where everything else is at a "large" distance from the antenna.

It's gonna be expensive to build cause you need to build it to pretty high standards. Even small defects can cause interference in your data.

[-] sodium_nitride@hexbear.net 41 points 2 months ago

Smh they could just give it to me.

For instance, a building housing Goddard’s ElectroMagnetic Anechoic Chamber (GEMAC), an extremely important piece of equipment for testing spacecraft antennas, is being shuttered.

Meanwhile the US has been making a big rukus about getting to the moon before China (a race that the Chinese didn't know they were in, and are basically 20 years ahead of the US in). This is how they will get to the moon.

The closures could impact the launch of the JWST’s successor, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, as well as its Dragonfly program, which is hoping to send a large helicopter to Saturn’s largest moon β€” concerns that a NASA spokesperson has since denied.

RIP πŸ™

I can't even joke about ts.

A NASA spokesperson told the broadcaster that the closures are all part of an existing β€œstrategic consolidation” plan that shouldn’t impact existing projects.

Yeah I'm strategically consolidating my assets into the trash can. comrade-raccoon

[-] ourtimewillcome@hexbear.net 35 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

a race that the Chinese didn't know they were in, and are basically 20 years ahead of the US in

Exactly! This is also why I'm so frustrated with the whole "space race" narrative in the west. Because

  • a) the USSR didn't see itself as participating in a race
  • b) it won.

[-] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 28 points 2 months ago

are basically 20 years ahead of the US in

China's 20 years ahead of us in basic infrastructure; I think 20 years is being generous to us (I'm already being generous to us to say that China's only ahead in infrastructure by 20 years)

They're funding the sciences, meanwhile our teachers are springing out of pocket to teach students and Trump's also decided to dismantle the department of education (which....you know, I'm not sure dems are going to bring back)

[-] Runcible@hexbear.net 17 points 2 months ago

which....you know, I'm not sure dems are going to bring back)

Sorry in advance, but how would they pay for it

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[-] hotcouchguy@hexbear.net 8 points 2 months ago

China is basically infinity-years ahead because we're only going backwards from now on

[-] Speaker@hexbear.net 10 points 2 months ago

What makes a space telescope Roman, and why would they name it after that true crime demon?

[-] take_five_moments@hexbear.net 39 points 2 months ago

primo dumpster diving spot just opened

[-] BigWeed@hexbear.net 34 points 2 months ago

I have an entire plant tissue culture lab that I've paid basically nothing for from government auctions. Incredibly expensive stuff but almost nobody bids on it. I'm basically out of room for more stuff but some of it doesn't get bid on and ends up in the garbage. Like a pallet of lab stuff for $10 w/ 0 bids.

[-] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 20 points 2 months ago

πŸ‘€where can I find these auctions

[-] BigWeed@hexbear.net 26 points 2 months ago
[-] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Jesus Christ there's a TEM for $150 lmao

Gonna cop me an NMR I've got room in the garage

[-] BigWeed@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

They had a whole liquid cryo system go for less than $1k. Been trying to avoid getting any mass specs but they come up a lot. I've been shopping here for the past like 6 months and heres my haul so far:

  • Harvey Sterilemax autoclave: $10
  • Airclean 600 laminar flow hood (new in box): $400
  • 2x milli-q advantage a10 water filters (w/ filters): $20 each
  • Shakers, rockers, and scales: ~$10 in pallet deals
  • Incubating orbital shaker: $100
  • Oscilloscope: $10 in pallet
  • nikon ts100 inverted microscope w/ camera attachment: $70
  • Olympus CK2: $50
  • Accuspin 1 centrifuge: $20
[-] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

awooga

I was joking about the NMR but a good microscope for 50 is probably worth doing. If nothing else my kids would think it's cool

[-] janus2@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago

oh my god. all you need now is the grad students to do the repetitive pipetting and you'll be a whole ass university for less than the price of a high end laptop

[-] HexaSnoot@hexbear.net 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What exactly is a TEM?

Edit: A microscope that kills bugs by taking the coolest images of them. No judgement, even if I wouldn't do it myself, I'm very glad other people do it for everyone else to see. Speaking of, if you get it I hope you upload some images! Lots of insects have a surprising amount of details up close, like their true number of eyes.

I feel this process could give an already-dead bug dignity. I try to rescue bees sometimes, but some of them are expired already when I try to help them. I really like bees so I wish I had a way to preserve their image, and return them to nature.

[-] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago

Nah I'm not going to get that lol it takes up a whole room

People do bug pics but you can take pictures of materials as well

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[-] KoboldKomrade@hexbear.net 8 points 2 months ago

I saw a lot of japanese yugioh cards on there for like $10. If it weren't in Arizona (I think it was), I'd grab it and hope some of them were $$.

[-] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 5 points 2 months ago

Hell yeah thank you

[-] CascadeOfLight@hexbear.net 4 points 2 months ago

$375 for a scanning electron microscope??? fidel-wut

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[-] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 32 points 2 months ago

Remember: this kind of slash-and-burn β€œbreak stuff” leadership will spur creative and entrepreneurial endeavors. Dennis Prager told me all about this part.

[-] abc@hexbear.net 28 points 2 months ago

yay the government auction site is gonna go crazy in a few months I might be able to get some sick telescope or something

[-] P1d40n3@hexbear.net 26 points 2 months ago

Gutting NASA is a small price to pay to kill Amerikkkan Empire

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 24 points 2 months ago

Nazi Aeronautics and Space Administration

[-] theturtlemoves@hexbear.net 13 points 2 months ago

I know this is a joke, but NASA does incredibly important work running weather satellites and remote sensing stuff. They also maintain archives (with free public access) of the data collected by these satellites, going back decades.

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 12 points 2 months ago

I thought that stuff was NOAA?

Gotta say as a non-seppo firing up a browser session to look at their website and being greeted with "the government is shut down" is super bizarre. The last time a budget bill failed to pass here was fifty fuckin years ago and the yanks used it to coup Gough Whitlam because he did a socialised health care.

[-] theturtlemoves@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

There's some overlap, but in general you need NASA to move the satellites from earth to orbit, maintain them and collect and process the data they send. (The raw data from satellites are things like 'reflectance at x wavelength' which can't be used directly. You need to do complicated black magic to convert that into say temperature or crop cover.)

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[-] acab_means_cop_Dva@hexbear.net 25 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

On the other hand, how are post-society scavengers supposed to scrounge up scuffed lost old technology in the wreckage of civilization if we don't throw out the prototype solar sails and DARPA classified research power cells first and let it get mixed in with the other detritus?

[-] daniyeg@hexbear.net 21 points 2 months ago

didn't know NASA had specialized scientific garbage /s

writing headlines is hard

[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 19 points 2 months ago

let's go dumpster diving

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 18 points 2 months ago

Trump's bold new plan for the 21st century must be to junk all non-military government tech unless it's steam powered.

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[-] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago

Wait....is NASA concerned because incredibly specialized science equipment is being thrown out as if it was garbage.....or is it that garbage is incredibly specialized science equipment? Cause like.....I'd happily donate my garbage to NASA; heck, just like modern phones are more powerful than early computers, my trashbin may contain more advanced equipment than anything NASA's had for decades.

[-] MayoPete@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago

On this episode of Storage Wars...

[-] userofnames@hexbear.net 14 points 2 months ago

i don't know but i thought they would just hand it over to the privatised space cowboys like spacex or blue origin

[-] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 13 points 2 months ago

They have the opportunity to do something incredibly funny.

Maybe a certain xi-lib-tears might make good use of that?

[-] Ildsaye@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

sit-back-and-enjoy Hopefully history nerds dumpster dive some cool stuff for posterity

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this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2025
101 points (100.0% liked)

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