News: 1655740813

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

NASA's SOFIA aircraft preps for final flights ahead of mission end

(2022/06/20)


The SOFIA aircraft has returned to New Zealand for a final time ahead of the mission's conclusion later this year.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft, designed to carry a 2.7-meter reflecting telescope into the stratosphere, above much of Earth's infrared-blocking atmosphere.

A collaboration between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), development began on the project in 1996. SOFIA saw first light in 2010 and achieved full operational capability in 2014. Its prime mission was completed in 2019 and earlier this year, it was decided that [1]SOFIA would be grounded for budgetary reasons. Operations end "no later than" September 30, 2022, followed by an "orderly shutdown."

[2]

Scientists are therefore keen to squeeze as much data from the platform as possible. Following a quick trip to Santiago, Chile, for a two-week deployment to observe the Large Magellanic Cloud, [3]SOFIA is making its seventh and final trip to New Zealand for a look at skies in the Southern Hemisphere.

[4]

[5]

Thirty-two flights are planned in this last international deployment, and the intention is to observe a wide range of celestial objects and phenomena including magnetic fields and cosmic rays.

SOFIA project scientist Dr Naseem Rangwala said: "We are committed to delivering a strong finish for this unique astrophysics mission, from a place of strength and pride, by giving our scientific community as much data as possible from the Southern Hemisphere."

[6]Meteoroid hits main mirror on James Webb Space Telescope

[7]AI to help study first images from James Webb Space Telescope

[8]NASA's modified Boeing 747 SP SOFIA to be grounded for good

[9]NASA awaits approval of $24bn 2022 budget

The first trip to New Zealand was taken three years after SOFIA launched. Nine years on, this deployment will be the last.

WE’RE BACK! SOFIA has landed in Christchurch, New Zealand for observations from the Southern Hemisphere. This is our seventh and final New Zealand deployment. ✈️ 🌌 [10]pic.twitter.com/RjtCLhDXuo — SOFIAtelescope (@SOFIAtelescope) [11]June 19, 2022

There are some concerns within the scientific community that not all the capabilities of SOFIA are available elsewhere, particularly at wavelengths even longer than those observable by the James Webb Space Telescope. SOFIA also has the benefit of being accessible for payload upgrade purposes.

However, budgets are budgets, and the management did not feel that the operational costs of the observatory justified its scientific productivity.

[12]

In the near future, SOFIA's data will be available in NASA's public archives. And the observatory? It is currently maintained and operated by NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California. One can but hope that a friendly museum will step up to take delivery of both aircraft and payload once the final observations have been completed. ®

Get our [13]Tech Resources



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/29/sofia_end_of_mission/

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YrDuCqJQVPa1vQcCYKq75wAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[3] https://blogs.nasa.gov/sofia/2022/06/18/new-zealand/

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YrDuCqJQVPa1vQcCYKq75wAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YrDuCqJQVPa1vQcCYKq75wAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/james_webb_meteoroid/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/ai_jwst_morpheus/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/29/sofia_end_of_mission/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/10/nasa_2022_buget/

[10] https://t.co/RjtCLhDXuo

[11] https://twitter.com/SOFIAtelescope/status/1538333295561293825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YrDuCqJQVPa1vQcCYKq75wAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/


Fun fact

Yet Another Anonymous coward

The original project scientist on SOFIA was previously working on a telescope on Hawaii and was on the flight that became a convertible mid-air.

He survived relatively unharmed, obviously, but seemed to be pushing his luck proposing another aircraft with a sunroof

Re: Fun fact

Doctor Syntax

I wonder whet the 2nd hand value is for a 747 with a big hole cut in it.

Re: Fun fact

Gene Cash

4th hand... the aircraft was owned by Pan Am, then United, then NASA.

Re: Fun fact

bazza

My guess is that it'll go into storage in the boneyard. There may not be any current plans for it, but a hunk of hardware like this is well worth preserving, just in case.

Re: Fun fact

Matthew Brasier

Many years ago I attended a session by my local Astronomy society where one of the scientists from SOFIA presented. Its a fascinating bit of kit and did some great work, but is somewhat hindered by NASA aircraft being legally registered as military aircraft, preventing it from flying over or near countries that are unfriendly with the USA.

Re: Fun fact

Yet Another Anonymous coward

For complex funding reasons the plane was owned by NASA but operated by United Airlines.

Astronomers asked if that meant they got airmiles. After a long and presumably expensive review the message came back that since it departed and arrived at the same place there were zero flight miles to claim

Re: Fun fact

Anonymous Coward

I don't know the model, but my dad supported the originial back USAF version in the 1960's flying out of Ascencion and Kwajalein.. He said having a convertible was nice, but the weather at altitude was rather, rather chilly...and while you could do donuts, or rather fly in circles with the telescope pointing at a point in the sky, that was all you could do with it.

STL files to print the jet & telescope

Gene Cash

So for blokes with 3D printers, there's the resources necessary to print the jet & telescope in 1/200 scale at https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/sofia

I stumbled across that by happenstance, so I figured I'd share.

... with liberty and justice for all ... who can afford it.