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One is attached to the International Space Station, and the other is collecting data as a stand-alone satellite. The latter would meet its permanent demise after burning up in the atmosphere if the mission were to be terminated.

A 2023 review by NASA concluded that the data they'd been providing had been "of exceptionally high quality."

The observatories provide detailed carbon dioxide measurements across various locations, allowing scientists to get a detailed glimpse of how human activity is affecting greenhouse gas emissions.

(Ex NASA employee) David Crisp said it "makes no economic sense to terminate NASA missions that are returning incredibly valuable data," pointing out it costs only $15 million per year to maintain both observatories, a tiny fraction of the agency's $25.4 billion budget.

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[-] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 100 points 3 weeks ago

Watching a world superpower destroy itself in real time is both fascinating and horrifying

[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 54 points 3 weeks ago

Guess you know how the Soviets felt now.

[-] WrongOnTheInternet@hexbear.net 40 points 3 weeks ago

Looking forward to Trump shelling Congress after the midterms

[-] AnarchoAnarchist@hexbear.net 17 points 3 weeks ago

It would probably offset the issues he has had with his approval ratings because of this Epstein stuff

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 weeks ago

Critical support for pig on pig violence

[-] blunder@hexbear.net 12 points 3 weeks ago

Kinda not against

[-] Pentacat@hexbear.net 68 points 3 weeks ago

If you don’t test for Covid, nobody will have Covid.

[-] LangleyDominos@hexbear.net 63 points 3 weeks ago

literal humiliation ritual for NASA libs

[-] kotak_doost@hexbear.net 20 points 3 weeks ago

Vlog bothers in shambles

[-] shallot@hexbear.net 58 points 3 weeks ago

This is actually kinda surprising. Having high quality climate change data while also barreling full-speed down the path towards total death seems like it’d be the best move to maximize misery.

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 56 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

It would be cool if a scientist defected with the control codes^[How would you commandeer a satellite, exactly? Do those things run sshd? Everything is computer, right? I'm going to ask for detailed instructions in a FOIA request.] instead of pressing the self-destruct button.

[-] himeneko@hexbear.net 34 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

i can confirm that stuff like ssh sometimes sees use to configure some systems of satellite

source: working on a space project rn

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 19 points 3 weeks ago

That's so cool. What I love about learning Linux is the applications are endless—practically every embedded device uses some form of it (including NASA satellites, I presume).

[-] himeneko@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago

it depends, cuz linux is a bit expensive and had trouble doing some realtime os stuff. this is what ive heard from coworkers though, so take that with a grain of salt.

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago

Probably still something Unix-like?

[-] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago

It's usually a stripped down version of the Linux kernel. See my post above where some cube sats use the kernel as an x86 bootloader.

They probably just fork BusyBox for most stuff, then strip it even more if they need to. Honestly just doing development with podman/docker targeting your architecture is the most obvious solution. Especially since you can adjust your environment or target multiple different possibile architectures (assuming the board itself is built by a contractor) without too much headache.

[-] someone@hexbear.net 5 points 3 weeks ago

One of the interesting things about the rapidly-improving RISC-V architecture is that NASA has decided to standardize on it for future in-space systems. Of course who knows when or if that's going to happen now of course.

[-] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

That's actually really sick. Makes sense too since RISC-V can be super power efficient and it's much easier to compile for. I'd guess that even as they get their budget cut, that part will remain operational. Too many private companies that will want to switch to RISC-V and will want to be able to just crib the tooling from a government agency.

[-] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

They at least use parts of the kernel or tooling that they strip out and re-compile for their specific systems.

I know that the computers in some of these satellites use super custom hardware, and Linux can be compiled to run on basically anything. Here's a spec that explicitly uses the kernel on nano sats

That one doesn't use sshd, but it does use UDP and an internal Ethernet switch to orchestrate all the components and communicate with the ground using some combo of radio bands as serial interfaces.

In that case, of you knew the codes you could gain control of it using a big enough ham radio lol

They do also tend to transmit the data unencrypted (for civilian weather and such) so if you can tune into the sat, you could pull images with one of the highest pings imaginable

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

In that case, of you knew the codes you could gain control of it using a big enough ham radio lol

izutsumi-idea Idea for a movie!

[-] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 27 points 3 weeks ago

There's gotta be a way to give it to China, right?

[-] VibeCoder@hexbear.net 45 points 3 weeks ago

USA really responding to the climate crisis with “lalalalala I can’t hear you”

[-] miz@hexbear.net 25 points 3 weeks ago
[-] miz@hexbear.net 43 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

(cw: self-harm)

[-] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 42 points 3 weeks ago
[-] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 35 points 3 weeks ago

Incredible.

[-] mayakovsky@hexbear.net 33 points 3 weeks ago
[-] Philosoraptor@hexbear.net 26 points 3 weeks ago
[-] homhom9000@hexbear.net 24 points 3 weeks ago

I remember reading an article saying the rich generally believes in climate change but would rather ride it out than take any action

[-] MaoTheLawn@hexbear.net 24 points 3 weeks ago

they did the same in slashing the deep sea biology research funding

[-] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 23 points 3 weeks ago
[-] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 20 points 3 weeks ago

“Communism is failure”

“But also capitalism is choosing human extinction but trust me, it’s worth it because the alternative doesn’t respect the heckin’ property rightserino!”

Well clearly it's one of those Jewish space lasers

[-] OldSoulHippie@hexbear.net 19 points 3 weeks ago

It's too bad Dianne feinstien isn't alive to see this. She would love it

[-] blunder@hexbear.net 8 points 3 weeks ago

I know this question is moot but... Does the president have singular authority over which satellites we have out there? Like, presumably only NASA knows how to do stuff with these satellites, and Trump has no idea if they are actually up there or not... Can't they just do nothing?

[-] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 3 weeks ago

he (like any head of state) has the only real authority of "is anyone going to stop me?" and "is someone going to follow this order?"
rules only exist so far as someone is willing and able to enforce them

[-] blunder@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah but like Trump has no idea if a satellite is in the sky or not lol nor how to remove one. They could absolutely just be like "uh yeah it's gone now"

[-] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago

yes, that's part of "is someone going to follow this order?"

[-] godlessworm@hexbear.net 5 points 3 weeks ago

prior to now i would say i dont know. now i say he has the authority to do anything he wants since nobody will stop him

he could just start declaring shit illegal and who’s gonna tell him that’s now how it works? and good luck arguing that to the cops who would be tasked with enforcing his orders.

[-] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago

Trump heard about Kessler syndrome and got really, really worried about it.

this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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