#SaveChandra
c0lo writes:
NASA Budget Threatens Fate of Veteran X-Ray Telescope, Alarming Astronomers
It might be the end of the road for two of NASA's most iconic telescopes as the space agency looks to reduce the funding for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, much to the dismay of scientists who rely heavily on the cosmic observations of the missions.
Shortly after the fate of its 2024 budget was sealed, NASA released its budget proposal for 2025, requesting $1.58 billion for its astrophysics division. Despite the 3% increase from what the space agency received this year to spend on astrophysics research, it represents a small reduction in the amount spent on Hubble and a major downgrade for Chandra's budget.
The proposed budget for Hubble Space Telescope in 2025 is $88.9 million, a slight decrease from $98.3 million in 2024, while the Chandra X-Ray Observatory would drop from $68.3 million in 2023 to $41.1 million in 2025 and a further reduction to $26.6 million the following year.
"The reduction to Chandra will start orderly mission drawdown to minimal operations," the budget document read. In its budget request, NASA argues that the Chandra spacecraft "has been degrading over its mission lifetime to the extent that several systems require active management to keep temperatures within acceptable ranges for spacecraft operations. This makes scheduling and the post processing of data more complex, increasing mission management costs beyond what NASA can currently afford."
Patrick Slane, director of the Chandra X-ray Center, responded in a statement, arguing that, while temperatures of the spacecraft have been increasing, the team has "developed thermal models and processes to manage this situation and have done so with amazing success-experiencing little or no decrease in observing efficiency, which far exceeds the initial requirements for the mission."
In the statement, Slane also expressed confusion over NASA's claim of increasing costs, recalling that there was only one instance in which the Chandra mission requested two additional people on the flight team, resulting in a 1% increase in cost in 2022.
Where TF are the gofundme or buymeacoffee links?
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